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Jolla Phone News: Sailfish OS for Android Devices

Jolla Phone - Latest News

Jolla Phone's fourth update to Sailfish OS will be released at the beginning of March, after which the software will be commercially ready for global distribution.  

Some of Jolla's introductions at WMC2014

• Jolla is releasing Sailfish OS experience as downloadable software to devices running Android OS. This will be a launcer application which can be used to simulate the Sailfish OS experience on Android devices, release will take place during the first half of 2014. Jolla community have already ported Sailfish OS to e.g. Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus & Sony Xperia (as partially working OS, not an app)
• Sailfish OS has reached release 1.0 and is now ready for global distribution. In the beginning of March 2014 Sailfish OS will drop its beta sign

NEW PARTNERSHIPS (final releases planned on Q2/2014)

• With Rovio Ltd., Jolla launches a special The Other Half Angry Birds smart cover providing exclusive Angry Birds user experience
• With F-Secure Corp., Jolla co-operates in mobile security and establishes trusted cloud services to its customers. All Jolla customers will enjoy gigabytes of free secure cloud storage integrated with their Jolla device experience
• With Tieto Corporation, Jolla will offer integration services to OEMs and ODMs willing to start the use of Sailfish OS in their products
• Makia, Finnish clothing company, is co-creating with Jolla unique The Other Half concept for its clothing line.

[OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE] HELSINKI, Finland – February 21, 2014 -- Jolla, the Finnish smartphone and Sailfish OS developer, today announced that Jolla’s mobile operating system Sailfish OS has reached release 1.0 and is now ready for global distribution. Jolla is also introducing availability of the Sailfish OS experience as downloadable software to devices running Android OS.

The world’s first Jolla phones were sold to mobile operator DNA’s customers in Finland in late November last year. After the limited availability sales start of Jolla smartphones with Sailfish OS beta, Jolla has released three significant software updates. The fourth update will be released at the beginning of March, after which the software will be commercially ready for global distribution.

“We’re very excited to announce this. We’ve been working hard together with our user community to make the user experience of the Jolla smartphone and Sailfish OS effortless and distinct. We believe that Jolla now offers a truly viable option for all smartphone users. Naturally we are not stopping here, as we continue to provide monthly software updates to Jolla devices and Sailfish OS,” says Marc Dillon, Co-Founder and COO of Jolla.

Sailfish OS is a distinctive, gesture-based mobile operating system. Effortless navigation and live multitasking are at the heart of Sailfish OS, giving the user full control of their digital life at a given moment. The OS supports both native Sailfish OS applications as well as AndroidTM applications. The availability and interoperability of Android apps in Sailfish OS has increased greatly since the sales start.

“Customers are now able to install their preferred Android app store, and choose from hundreds of thousands of available Android applications. In addition, the active and passionate Sailfish OS community has already developed major social media applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, and Foursquare, natively to the Sailfish OS,” Marc Dillon says.

New Jolla markets to open soon

Currently Jolla smartphones are available for orders online at shop.jolla.com at the price of 399€ (incl. VAT) to all European Union countries, Switzerland and Norway. In Finland Jolla smartphones can be purchased also through local operator DNA’s shops, and sales is now expanding to all common retail channels.

Jolla is now rapidly entering into new markets, and is negotiating with partners in several countries, including Russia, India and Hong Kong where Jolla will open online sales in the near future. Negotiations in several European countries are well on the way for Jolla to soon open new channels in main European markets.

Smartphone and OS that get better every month

Already in two months, Sailfish OS has been developed with major steps in terms of feature additions, fine-tuned performance and increased battery life. Among the major features and fixes have been landscape mode, camera zoom, and impred battery life, to name a few.

The fourth software update released in the beginning of March, raising the software to commercial readiness, will again include many important improvements and new features. These will include further improved performance, extended landscape support, lots of visual improvements, lots of new camera functionalities, enhancements to the Jolla store, new general settings, and many more.

Furthermore, thanks to its open development and open source software contribution model, Sailfish OS update cycle is extremely fast, resulting in monthly software releases, and the release plan provides unseen transparency for interested developers. This fits in particularly well for those who want to develop their own products using the Sailfish OS.

Sailfish OS downloadable to existing Android devices

Sailfish OS has been developed to be compatible with commonly available Android hardware platforms. Due to this advanced technology, Jolla is introducing the Sailfish OS experience as downloadable software to devices running Android OS. Users can soon start to enjoy the modern, gesture based Sailfish OS in selected Android devices and also renew the lifecycle of their existing older Android devices.

The Sailfish community has already ported Sailfish OS into several devices including major versions of popular Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus, and Sony Xperia. Also, porting for highly popular Chinese Xiaomi products is under work in community projects.

In addition, Jolla is releasing its own Sailfish user interface launcher as an Android application, which can be used to simulate the Sailfish OS experience on Android devices. The app will be available for download in the near future from Jolla.com and from common Android market places.

“We see this as a huge volume opportunity for Sailfish OS as there are close to a billion Android users globally. Many of them are looking for new user experiences to freshen up their existing devices. Last year in China alone, about 100 million devices were re-flashed after the purchase with a new operating system. This approach allows Sailfish OS to scale into volume fast without limitations. This is a scaling opportunity in a similar way as we have seen in the mobile gaming industry recently,” Antti Saarnio, Chairman of the Board of Jolla comments.

Jolla will release the downloadable Sailfish OS software in phases during the first half of 2014. First, the UI launcher application is released so users can start to experience the Sailfish user interface in their existing devices running Android OS. Later Android smartphone users can get the full Sailfish OS to their devices.

Announcing new partnerships

Jolla has formed new key partnerships in order to scale up its device business and Sailfish OS availability:
With Rovio Ltd., Jolla launches a special The Other Half Angry Birds smart cover providing exclusive Angry Birds user experience (see separate press release)
With F-Secure Corp., Jolla co-operates in mobile security and establishes trusted cloud services to its customers. All Jolla customers will enjoy gigabytes of free secure cloud storage integrated with their Jolla device experience (see separate press release)
With Tieto Corporation, Jolla will offer integration services to OEMs and ODMs willing to start the use of Sailfish OS in their products
“We believe that now is the momentum for next generation mobile operating systems to emerge. The current dominating mobile operating systems are being developed more and more towards closed ecosystems by their overly dominant owners closing their platforms from other businesses. At the same time the internet business growth already comes from the mobile internet, leaving many major businesses without sales channels and differentiation opportunities. The world needs a mobile operating system, which is open to developers, customers, service providers and different business models. Just in a few months we have shown how fast an open operating system can develop compared to closed ecosystems. It’s time for free choice instead of closed walled gardens,” Antti Saarnio says.

Jolla is demonstrating the Jolla smartphone with Sailfish OS 1.0, Sailfish OS for devices running Android, and The Other Half partnerships at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 24-27, 2014. Jolla can be found in Hall 1, booth 1B25.

For more information please contact: press@jolla.com.

Source: Jolla.com Press Releases (pdf1 pdf2 pdf3)

Jolla news: Next Jolla The Other Half released soon

Jolla is releasing new The Other Half during Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. The color is "Poppy Red", the same which 1st stage pre-order customers received, but without text "The First One", special ringtone and ambience.

Read more: Jolla at MWC2014

via: http://thebestnokiablog.blogspot.fi (finnish blog)

Jolla News: Jolla at MWC2014

Jolla attends Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona

The Mobile World Congress 2014 will be held for the second time at the Fira Gran Via venue, a new, cutting-edge exhibition and conference facility which provides greater space and flexibility. The venue is located in   L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 10 km from the airport.

Fira Gran Via
Av. Joan Carles I, 64 08908 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Web Click Here
Tel +34 932 332000
Fax +34 932 332080
email mwc@firabarcelona.com

Jolla: Stand 1B25, Hall 1

Jolla stand is nicely located. It's found just a bit left from the main entrance, opposite to NTT Docomo stand and next to Pro Mexico. Huawei, phone manufacturer with 5,6% market share and LG, phone manufacturer with 4,8% market share (Q4/2013) have the biggest areas in the same hall.

What to expect from Jolla?

In the last year Jolla was also present, but instead of a stand they had a smaller congress room. According to Jolla's CEO Tomi Pienimäki participating is a big investment. He has also confirmed that we are not going to see another phone model yet, but another model is in Jolla's plans, probably revealed earliest at 2015. Instead of a new phone, huge improvements are expected to be revealed to the Sailsfish Operating System.

New features and bug fixes are vital to Jolla. According to Jolla's Chairman of the Board Antti Saarnio, Jolla phone is currently been very well received among pioneer customers, but the product still needs to finish in order to be the product of all the people. This should be done within a few months, Saarnio promises.
 
Also the fourth "The Other Half" will be revealed during the happening. Backcover color "Poppy Red" is familiar to the 1st stage pre-order customers, who received their Jolla's already with this color, added with an exclusive text "The First One". Also the ambience backgournd is different - in this new TOH there's twisted stribes.

Sailfish OS is developed on Nokia's Meego

Nokia is currently using Windows in their phones, but it's confirmed that they will reveal their first Android phone during MWC2014. This model will probably not be the only Android Phone by Nokia, according to Wall Street Journal (article 10-Feb-2014).

Is it possible that we'll see a Sailfish Nokia one day? "We are supposed to provide the operating system [Sailfish OS] to others, also to the big operators in the sector", Antti Saarnio says.

Jolla at MWC2014: Contact information, description, interactive map

Search for word "Jolla" here: http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/2014-exhibitors/

Sources: IDC, Wall street Journal, YLE (finnish), Tekniikka ja Talous (finnish)

Jolla News: Market share Q4/2013 and a view to the future of Jolla phone

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors, Shipments Q4/2013

• Samsung 28,8%
• Apple 17,9%
• Huawei 5,8%
• Lenovo 4,9%
• LG 4,6%
• Others 37,9%

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, January 27, 2014

• As part of the "Others" above, Jolla has 0,005%

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Platforms, Shipments Q4/2012 & Q4/2013

AOSP (Android Open Source Project) with 25% at Q4/2013 has a huge gain compared to year back. These phones (forked Android) are mostly sold in China, India and other parts of Asian markets. A great deal of these phones have Android versions which are still using Google services, but back in October 2013 Google locked their Google Play service from forked Android phones (e.g. Kindle). Apps developed on Google API and dependent of Play services are not working in these phones any more.

Sailfish OS and Android support

Android support on Jolla is independent of Google Play services, but more and more apps developed on Google API are dependent on these. Due to this, Jolla owners might face a problem in close future - future Android apps developed on Google API will not run properly, and users are forced to hunt older, working versions of their desired apps. I might have encountered this already while updating Navfree - last working version seems to be 2.1.14

It's obvious that it's not in Google's interest to enable their apps to run on any other platforms but unforked Android, and the 4% loss in their market share of native Android can already be heard as a sound of alarm for them. It's possible, even probable, that the support outside Google's Android is  getting even worse in a long run.

While all this we should be extremely happy and excited about each new native Sailfish OS app reaching Jolla Store. The phone is the cake, but it's not much without great apps decorating it. On behalf of our community I want to show some respect for every single app developed:

Review Jolla's thanks to Sailfish app developers

Starting soon, this blog will review as much Sailfish apps as possible. My first app review was IRC for Sailfish, but let that be just a beginning. As the amount of apps is growing, I also wish to welcome app reviews written by others to be shared here, please contribute for this common purpose and shere your respect with nice, yet honest, reviews.

Also, you will not find any more Android app reviews on this blog. Those already written (Go Launcher EX, Navfree, Plex, Flash player) may stay, as well as the App report tool where you can still share your experience from both Sailfish and Android apps (see Community DIT). In overall, this blog takes a turn towards Sailfish.

Conclusion

Sailfish OS will surely gain its independent market share in time, and while Google reduces their support outside native Android, Jolla has no idea to advance with its Android support in a long run. While the amount of native Sailfish apps is small, Android support remains as an important part of Jolla - especially in entering markets in Asia.

I wish that both Jolla and our great community will give their full support, in many different ways, to all Sailfish app developers - this has a first-rate importance.

Jolla News: Letter from Jolla, Open Source Sailfish browser

Sailfish OS is an Open Source project (sailfishos.org). On top of it, Jolla currently has a closed source user interface, but that's not the whole picture - according to Jolla, this situation is due to change in time.

With the latest update, Sailfish OS 1.0.3.8. Naamankajärvi, Jolla already introduced a new recovery menu which enables unlocking Jolla's bootloader. This was a step towards Open Source  - and today the story goes on. Letter from Vesa-Matti Hartikainen, Jolla Oy:

We finally got all the preparations done and today is the day. Sailfish Browser is Jolla's first fully open source application! The public repository is here: https://github.com/sailfishos/sailfish-browser We intend to work as open as possible and hope to gain contributors and a better chance of getting our embedding accepted to Mozilla upstream. Future contributions, both internal and external should go to the public repository. I hope that we will get a public bugzilla for this project at some point, but at the moment externally we will use Github's issue tracker. A more in depth description of the technology powering the browser can be found at http://blog.idempotent.info/posts/whats-behind-sailfish-browser.html. On behalf of Jolla's browser team I thank you all for being an awesome community and we are very much looking forward to building a great browser together! -- Vesa-Matti Hartikainen Jolla Oy

Open Source licence is added to the code already two weeks ago, but the letter above was published today. By this letter it's obvious that Jolla wishes to welcome more developers to contribute to the browser code, aiming to make it a full member of the Mozilla browsers main upstream. This would be a win win situation to both Jolla, their customers and mozilla.org.

Open Sourcing Sailfish browser was also expected because of the existing Gecko licence - Jolla's Sailfish browser uses Mozilla’s Gecko engine, and it's embedded with EmbedLite API.

News about Open Source Sailfish Browser has been welcome. Information was first published at Maemo developer forum, since then it's already reached at least:

• GIGAOM
• The Next Web
• CNN Money
• Several Jolla community sites, blogs and forums

Grants, by the licence of Sailfish Browser

Each Contributor hereby grants You a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license:

1. under intellectual property rights (other than patent or trademark) Licensable by such Contributor to use, reproduce, make available, modify, display, perform, distribute, and otherwise exploit its Contributions, either on an unmodified basis, with Modifications, or as part of a Larger Work; and
2. under Patent Claims of such Contributor to make, use, sell, offer for sale, have made, import, and otherwise transfer either its Contributions or its Contributor Version.

(note: for conditions, read the full licence http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/)

The First One - On My Ground (updated)

Screen capture, DNA Store in Finland telling Jolla will be available soon

Updates 12.12.2013:

• Jolla has officially apologized for the delays at their webshop support site
• Shipping to outside Finland is starting. Yesterday 800 of these pre-orders were updated to "In picking" status, today the number has been growing. There are at least 4000 customers waiting for their new phones outside Finland. In additoin to that, most of the finnish 1st pre-order customers are still in the waiting queue, while 2nd wave customers in Finland are picking their phones.
• DNA shops have received only a limited amout of phones, but enough for all their shops in Finland. Some have been already sold to public, some are reserved for 2nd wave pre-order customers until Saturday morning.
• Jolla hasn't officially informed the amounts of orders or sales, nor how many phones are delivered to DNA. A longer while ago, the latest official statement of amounts was that pre-order campaigns have gathered about 20 000 interested customers in 136 countries. How many of these have actually ordered the phone is unknown, but by the information I've received from other customers, I carefully dare to estimate that Jolla has sold mre than 10 000 phones by now. 
• Customers are busy tracking what's happening at the back door of Jolla, more than 250 orders are followed on an online worksheet. Only a Jolla community can do something like this!

Original article:

Jolla Smartphones come to the DNA Shops in Finland. From DNA:

• Jolla phones are available to public in Finland starting 11-Dec-2013
• Finnish 2nd wave pre-orderers, who have chosen a DNA Store, can have their phones too
• Jolla starts shipping phones to 2nd wave customers at the same day
• All first wave pre-order customers, both in Finland and outside Finland, haven't yet (10-Dec) received their phones, or tracking codes for the shipment. Some finnish first wave customers have the phone In Hand, many see it shipping at the moment. Jolla is currently shipping as many first wave phones as they can (each worker only has two hands here in Finland).

Jolla Smatrphones outside Finland are shipped on this week. From JollaHQ:

@Florian_Si @JaarkDS @qrosh @HelinaT @SimoRuoho @JujuDHighlands EU shipments go out this week, please stay tuned. Thanks for your support.
— Jolla (@JollaHQ) December 10, 2013

I personally understand that Jolla must prior things in Finland, as Finland is the only country with an operator agreement between DNA and Jolla, but I'd wish them to inform their customers better in this matter. Outside Finland, customers are obviously expected to be satisfied for "The First One - On My Ground". This has caused some whining and few ugly posts around the community, and not without a reason, as Jolla hasn't been totally open for their customers  in each country and each pre-order wave. In my opinion, the whole mess could have been avoided with a simple, open minded message to all 1st and 2nd wave customers: "We are sorry, we can't ship all the Jollas in the true prority order, due to an important operator agreement in Finland. However, your Jolla is arriving in a time promised to you. Please have patience... Please contact... etc."  As simple as that. Hopefully this is the future.
Tweet from JollaHQ, concirning customers outside Finland:

@JujuDHighlands You will be the first ones to receive it on your home markets. Thanks for your patience.
— Jolla (@JollaHQ) December 10, 2013

Well, I suppose that the  community just hopes all the best for Jolla - this was a small mistake, compared to all possibile walls which a startup company might have run into. entering the mobile market. First wave customers are, however, getting their phones shipped before other 2nd wave customers outside Finland. In a way, they can be seen as the topic here state: "The First One - OMG"

Press release DNA Finland 10.12.2013:

Jolla smartphones available from DNA Stores from 11 December

Jolla smartphones will go on general sale in DNA Stores from 11 December. That is also the day when the 'second chance' pre-bookers can collect their phones if they have selected a DNA Store as the collection point.

"At this point, only a limited number of phones will be available, but they will be shipped to DNA Stores all over Finland, and, in addition to pre-bookers, will be available to the general public, as well" says Cedric Kamtsan, DNA's Business Director in charge of the Jolla project.

The first batch of Jolla phones went on sale at a launch event arranged by DNA in Helsinki at the end of November. At the launch event, DNA offered the fastest pre-bookers the opportunity to buy their phones among the first 450 owners of Jolla smartphones. Deliveries to all other 'first edition' pre-bookers are in full progress.

Second phase pre-bookers from Finland can collect their phones from a DNA Store or by post from Jolla, according to where they have chosen the delivery in advance. Deliveries to second phase pre-bookers will begin on 11 December, both by post and from DNA Stores.

Phones due for collection from DNA Stores will be held at the DNA Store selected by the customer until 13 December - byers will get an SMS confirmation today. Any phones not collected will be placed on general sale on Saturday 14 December, but pre-bookers will naturally have a chance to collect their phones, subject to availability.

DNA has played an integral part in the product development and commercialisation of Jolla smartphones and is the operator with the exclusive right to sell Jolla phones in Finland during the launch phase.

Jolla is powered by Sailfish OS, a truly open and distinct mobile operating system. Navigate effortlessly with the gesture-based user interface and load the phone with top Android (TM) apps. More information on Jolla at www.jolla.com.

Pictures of the Jolla phone and DNA's product launch event in Helsinki on 27 November 2013

More information:
Cedric Kamtsan, Business Director, DNA Ltd, tel. +358 44 906 2377, cedric.kamtsan@dna.fi 
Jolla media contact: press@jolla.com  
Riitta Luhtala, Communications Manager, DNA Ltd, tel. +358 44 044 1040, riitta.luhtala@dna.fi 

DNA Ltd is a Finnish telecommunications company providing high-quality, state-of-the-art voice, data, and TV services to private customers and corporations. DNA’s 3G network reaches five million Finns and is constantly expanding, and the 4G networks are reaching new cities and urban areas all the time. In 2012, DNA recorded a turnover of EUR 769 million and an operating profit of EUR 56 million. DNA Ltd has more than 3 million mobile communications and fixed network customers. DNA and WELHO are registered trademarks of DNA Ltd. The Group includes also DNA Kauppa, the largest operator retail chain in Finland. For more information, please visit www.dna.fi.

About Jolla: Jolla Ltd., headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, is developing mobile devices and the open operating system, Sailfish, based on the heritage of MeeGo project. In addition to its R&D sites in Helsinki and Tampere, Jolla has offices in Hong Kong. Please see jolla.com/press for further press and media materials.

Jolla phones on their way to pre-order customers

Jolla phones are beeing delivered to the pre-order customers in several countries, and Jolla celebrates Finland's independence day with opening another prebooking campaign for finnish customers. That gives another chance for new finnish customers to receive the phone by Christmas directly from Jolla, instead of hoping there are any left in a closeby DNAshop. DNA has not started selling quite yet.

UPDATE 6.12.2013 Jolla wishes happy independence day for their finnish customers and opens a new pre-order campaign. The campaign seems to be only for new, finnish customers. At http://jolla.com/fi/#prebook: "Jolla on nyt saatavilla Suomessa! Liity ensimmäisten joukkoon jättämällä sähköpostiosoitteesi. Saat kutsun verkkokauppaamme joulukuussa."

International customers are welcome to leave their email at http://jolla.com/#prebook, and they will also get notified when Jolla is available. No more information about the "when" word available now.

ORIGINAL NEWS 5.12.2013 Several pre-order customers have seen their order status changed from "Paid" to "In picking", and I've heard that few people have already received email with the packet tracking code. Jolla phones are beeing delivered to pre-order customers.

Tomorrow, 6.12. is the Independence day in Finland, so the deliveries here will be delayed to the next week - and if your orderID is a bigger number, you might need to wait for a little while longer still.

But it's coming! You can check your own order status at https://shop.jolla.com/

More status updates to orders are unlikely to happen before Monday because of the holidays in Finland. If your order status is "In picking", you will propably receive email form Jolla during next week, and after the email you should have your Jolla posted in 1-2 working days for Finland, few more days outside Finland.

Let's all have patience and let's avoid sending extra emails to Jolla, as each one takes time to answer and there are many customers waiting for their phone. However, in any issues concerning your order you can contact care@jolla.com.