Two companies which rose from the ashes of Nokia's pre-Windows device business may end up head-to-head in bringing new handsets to market. Jolla, which was formed by former Nokia engineers and uses the Finnish firm's MeeGo software, has shipped the first smartphone running its Sailfish operating system. And another start-up, Newkia, has appointed a CEO and says it is racing towards deployment of its first handset.
Jolla said it sold out of the first production batches of its smartphone and that this signifies a consumer desire for an alternative to Android and iOS. Of course, the company is talking about tens of thousands of devices, not millions like Apple, and there was little sign of the Chinese distribution deals it promised earlier this year, as it made its official debut in Helsinki.
But this is only a starting point – the handset is a reference design to stir up consumer and developer interest, but the business model is to license the software to OEMs, going up against other emerging alternatives to Google, such as Firefox Mobile and Tizen. Despite the crowded field, Jolla has scored a high profile in recent months, with what chairman and co-founder Antti Saarnio calls “our idealistic views on how we believe the mobile phone should be.”
He told Bloomberg: “With our own phone and our partners' phones combined, we're expecting to sell millions of phones.” The first model costs €399 ($543) without subsidies, and Jolla said the firm had received pre-orders from 136 countries. It will start selling the devices in China, which has been the main focus of its partner plans, next year.
The Sailfish OS – like Samsung-backed Tizen – is based on MeeGo, the mobile Linux platform that Nokia co-developed with Intel before throwing in its lot with Microsoft's Windows Phone. Sailfish has a distinctive user interface with functions largely controlled by two simple gestures – pushing from the edge of the screen and from the center of the screen – rather than buttons.