Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the past number of years now has been offering their software stack for use on other smartphone devices. But now it seems they are trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone.
Sailfish OS has supported a number of Sony Xperia smartphones and a variety of OnePlus / Samsung / Google / Xiaomi devices and more maintained by the community. Last year Jolla also announced an “AI computer” as part of the AI hardware craze. Now though they are apparently trying again at their own in-house smartphone.
I hope they succeed, it’s a very tough market.
They probably need a lot of ducks to line up in a row. But the current privacy wave and the push for digital sovereignty in Europe might help.
Kinda. But also kinda not. The cost of getting a phone made has decreased and there are many, many manufacturers who can make one for you these days. From that perspective, if you have small niche where people are alright with paying a bit of a premium, it may in fact be easier to make a phone for them than say in 2012.
This price for a low volume device would have been completely unachievable in 2012.
Small specialized outfits in Shenzhen can slap together a model in a few weeks tops. (And that video is nine years old.)
The software ecosystem, or rather lack thereof, is the far bigger hurdle.
True, but aren’t there decent Android emulation layers for Linux available nowadays? Not sure how well-integrated into SailfishOS that is, but giving it a shot…
I mean, it’s probably much easier to just make an Android phone that will work with Android apps natively without discrepancies in the UI, workflows, permissions, and such. Unless Google has some trademark provisions or stuff like that. From what I can tell, Amazon and the like do it just fine. Of course, getting developers into yet another app store would be about just as difficult as with Sailfish.
Presumably, it’s just that I can’t stand the Android UX personally, which is the main reason I’m on iOS. But if a good, open alternative comes along I’m willing to try…
Ooh, if you don’t like Android UX, wait until you try applications UI that doesn’t jibe with the underlying OS interface. Like Qt apps on Mac and such. It’s like getting poked in the face every time you use the app.
Yeah, familiar with that experience 😅 Could be I end up disliking Sailfish for that exact reason, but if there’s a handful of good native apps that might mitigate quite a lot. Could also be I end up using it as a second phone, one with fewer distractions on it…