Jolla Mobile: website launch and Sailfish OS sneak peek
jolla.com
jolla.com
Edit. http://www.slashgear.com/jolla-planning-3-5-phone-with-andro... It will run Android apps. Nice.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/09/google-blocked-acers-...
What major OEM is left to make the phones? Nokia? (har har) Apple? (Yeah right.) RIM?
I've always wanted a real Linux phone that is well-supported both by a community and a commercial vendor.
Consider the alternatives: iOS and WP are closed, Android is based on Linux but needs a JVM to do most things - and of course is heavily controlled by Google.. Why is a true Linux phone where you can run native apps important? Because you can port existing libraries that people have worked hard to make on the desktop, easily onto the phone, and create awesome experiences without reinventing the wheel - consider Telepathy-supported unified IM.
You could also do lots of geekery - use your phone as a first-class development device (I've served a couple of websites for development work straight through my N900 over 3G, running a LAMP stack on the phone, while coding the whole thing in a shell using Vim and it's associated addons, right on the phone). That's not the point here though.
The point is that this gives you true freedom to do whatever you want. This involves building amazing apps, porting excellent libraries previously used on the desktop, and lots more.
From what I've read, I'm assuming that Sailfish lets you do all that.
Plus, leaving the control up in the air, means that it could become as fragmented as the Linux world - which is much more fragmented than Android. At least you can run an Android app on virtually any Android-based phone.
To be honest, I'm more excited about Firefox OS. I even like its UI more than this, which looks like a mix of different UI ideas from different operating systems. Not that I have anything against borrowing ideas and building on them - it's just that I don't think the result is very good.
This is a happy medium between the hardline no-preinstalled-carrier-apps of iOS and the anything-goes Android phones.
They are targeting Europe and mostly Asia at the moment. Living in India, I know for a fact that most people don't buy smartphones locked into carriers.
We do have conracts tied with devices, but the market for them is very small in the case of smartphones.
It just doesn't make sense to commit for so long to a particular telecom company, because here, carriers compete a lot and people do want flexibility to switch from one carrier to another.
So no, I don't think jolla is at the mercy of carriers.
Buying a phone that you don't have complete control over is seen as stupid.
A "geek" friendly phone will always conflict with the need for decent market adoption. Ubuntu on the desktop is "awesome" but according to current market adoption numbers, no one cares.
Any new mobile OS needs to at least match or exceed Android or WP 8 and demonstrate the capacity for breaking new technical grounds in (AI,voice recognition,location & commerce). It's a tall order. I applaud the folks at Jolia for trying but from the look of it, they're not there yet.
The pulley menu is a great conept. You slide the menu to make the selection. Nice touch.
Another useful feature is the stuff you can operate on the "multitasked windows". I wonder though, how would the UI display more than 4 multitasked windows - displaying smaller icons or may be provide a horizontal navigation for 4+ windows.
Definitely an OS worth waiting for. It would be awesome if I can deploy it on my N9!