Isn't this "Meego" based. There's an Android logo at 0m50 http://cl.ly/image/2D1l2X470d3C does it means it will run Android apps or that is an Android fork?
Does that mean Jolla will be banned from shipping on any phone from Samsung, HTC, Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, LG, Sony, Motorola(cough), Huwaei, Toshiba, Dell, ZTE etc. ?
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.
We'll see. I saw an interview with them this year, and something they said worried me. They basically admitted their OS would be heavily controlled by carriers, but they tried to spin it as "working very close with carriers". If that's the case, it might provide an even worse experience regarding carrier bloatware and whatnot than Android.
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.
What is your expectation for the relationship between a manufacturer and carriers? The carriers are their customers. If they want to stay in business, they have to make their customers happy, like any other industry. The idea that they are going to put their foot down and strong-arm the carriers is not a realistic one. I take that comment to mean Jolla wants to stay in business.
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.
Hopefully they take and stick to a stand that preinstalled carrier bloatware should be able to be uninstalled very easily and disallow always running services like on WP.
This is a happy medium between the hardline no-preinstalled-carrier-apps of iOS and the anything-goes Android phones.
Jolla has no clout. They can't take a stand on anything. The best they can do is build it into the system that all apps can be uninstalled and hope no one at the carrier brings it up.
Real linux or not, putting out a mobile OS platform is a considerably ambitious and expensive enterprise. Let's not even address user adoption at this point.
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.
I must say it is really an innovative and a usable UI concept. It seems that Jolla has all those MeeGo engineers from Nokia who developed the Swipe UI of N9.
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!
Deploying on N9 seems to be a real possibility. Currently they seem to be doing their development on N950, the qwerty-equipped sister model of N9 that never was brought to the market.
You and me both. I miss it whenever I use a phone that isn't my N9. It just seems so natural. The actual shape of the phone helped a lot though - I don't think it would work as well if the front was completely flat.
+1, but unfortunately Swype UI as it is belongs to Nokia. Maybe they'll do something similar, some swyping similar gestures can already be seen on those videos. Time will tell.
It seems they are doing something similar, but with vertical scrolling/swiping. Swipe up from notifications to get to running apps, swipe again to get to the full list of apps.
Edit. http://www.slashgear.com/jolla-planning-3-5-phone-with-andro... It will run Android apps. Nice.