Previously, the Nokia N9 (Photo credit: SapiensBryan)
Finnish boutique smartphone company Jolla this morning revealed a little more about their Linux based smartphone platform. Employing a significant number of employees who worked on Nokia's Linux based devices (including the critically acclaimed N9) many industry watchers have been watching to see what the small company can deliver.
The covers were taken off Sailfish OS this morning, with a presentation video showing off the clean lines of the UI, including the multi-tasking, a number of applications, and the 'pulley menu'.
Sharp eyed viewers will also spot a certain green logo... While Sailfish is not running Android, it does offer a significant amount of compatibility with Android applications. There should be a significant number of third party applications that will run on any Sailfish handset out of the box.
That gets over the thorny question of application support for a new platform - Facebook and Twitter clients, Instagram support, countless games, and hopefully whatever theme Angry Birds will have when the handset launches.
That also lowers the barrier for entry for developers. If they want to take full advantage of the Jolla environment then they'll need to port the app to QT/QML in conjunction with Jolla's SDKs to have their application running on the new platform. At least that's the hope.
The Jolla team also confirmed that Sailfish OS will initially run on ST-Ericsson's NovaThor platform. According to Jolla CEO Marc Dillon [this will] "enable vendors to bring highly competitive mobile products to the market." Further chipsets will likely be announced in the future.
It's a very steep road for Jolla to climb to get to market, and then of course they need to be a success in the market. But if people are looking for something different, with an expectation of application support, then Jolla has to be one of the platforms which will be considered.
