Jolla Focusing On Building A Smartphone
- High end smartphone
- Powered by Sailfish OS
- Alternative to Android and iOS
Finnish startup Jolla is reportedly building its own phone to be powered by Sailfish OS.
- High end smartphone
- Powered by Sailfish OS
- Alternative to Android and iOS
Finnish startup Jolla is reportedly building its own phone to be powered by Sailfish OS.
Jolla (pronounced as “Yol-la”) was formed by former employees of Nokia who put up the company when Nokia announced that they were abandoning future efforts to develop Meego OS in favour of Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
Now, the startup firm is composed of a staff of 60 who are currently working on developing the company’s first smartphone that will be heading first to the Chinese market. In a statement made by Jolla’s CEO Marc Dillon at MWC 2013, he said that the company will be making a smartphone to provide consumers an alternative option in a market dominated by Android and iOS.
He adds that Jolla will provide a unique product with a very fresh user interface, where emphasis is given to providing performance to consumers without sacrificing ergonomics and usability. Dillon also adds that they are working on an operating system that is very portable and is easy to put onto different hardware giving consumers more flexible options.
The first Jolla-branded phone will be launched in China probably by Q3 2013 just in time for the holidays. It will then find its way to Finland and eventually to the rest of Europe. Dillon added that although the company plans to penetrate the U.S. market in the future, he said that it might take time before they venture into American territory simply because of the high barriers of entry to newcomers brought about by the strict patent landscape there.
Jolla is also focusing on creating a high-end phone as opposed to what Mozilla is doing with its Firefox OS. According to Dillon, although Jolla can be installed on a phone with feature phone specs, the company wants to make their first device as good as they can in order to showcase what the company and its staff is capable of doing.
At present, Jolla is backed by a considerable amount of funding from a private consortium of investors valuing it at around $20 million.
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