Editorial: #Jolla Chairman, Antii Saarnio Is Open To Nokia Collaboration
The news comes with reference to our friends at ReviewJolla recent article who have translated an interview with Jolla Chairman Antii Saarnio by YLE News, based in Finland.
Being largely software-orientated, Jolla have long sought and been open to partnerships with other hardware-based companies from day one.
It is for this reason we have long speculated and indeed been excited about the future potential possibility of a Jolla + Nokia partnership (or reunion of sorts). These two Finnish companies would appear perfectly aligned to form a partnership should the ingredients “feel right” for both companies especially now Nokia have been unleashed from certain previous restraints (read: Microsoft).
Jolla + Nokia: Winning Combination ?
Now that Nokia are free from Microsoft reigns and able to pursue their own future, having very recently announced their intentions with a tablet launch of their own, at Slush, is now the time for such a potentially winning combination ?
The quote from Jolla Chairman, Antii Saarnio, would suggest Jolla would certainly be open for some such combination:
“If Nokia is in agreement, then without a doubt. Of course, Finnish companies have to cooperate”, Jolla’s Chairman Antti Saarnio said to YLE [Finnish television and news agency] at Slush.
“We are a player in the operating system markets, not a manufacturer. Our goal is not to be a big tablet manufacturer. We do not have muscles required to enter the world markets in a large volume with our own unit, but we are willing to license this operating system to anyone”, Saarnio continued.
The key point here I suppose is that while Nokia have designed a rather nice tablet, the tablet runs Android (albeit with their own Z-Launcher skin), which is a highly competitive marketplace. However, if they were to really differentiate from the already-crowded Android market, would Sailfish represent a better option, and more so, a better historical progression of true Nokia values (read: MeeGo) ?
@iamthecosmos900 if you want stock 5.0 you can use stock 5.0. We plan on shipping with an unlocked bootloader!
— John Kneeland (@SirKneeland) November 18, 2014
It has even been suggested recently that Nokia’s N1 tablet would come with an unlockable bootloader making it technically possible to install Sailfish OS should you desire, as mynokiablog points out:
This means you can install your own ROM so you can even replace the entire OS entirely, be that Cyanogen Mod, Ubuntu, MeeGo or Sailfish. At least that’s how I’ve understood it from XDA wiki.
Jolla themselves are proving that there is indeed quite a demand for a Sailfish-based tablet having now generated close to $1,000,000 with their recent IndieGoGo campaign, even though they don’t plan to be a hardware manufacturer predominantly. So would this represent a wise decision for the former Finnish mobile power house ?
Jolla Tablet: A huge success on IndieGoGo, crowd funding website
Well, Nokia’s new approach appears to be more about licensing their brand/hardware designs to other manufacturers (eg. FoxConn) and passing on manufacturing and distribution duties so perhaps there may be another kind of potential partnership scenario to be realised here, a ménage à trois if you will ?
The potential scenario that would finally bring these 2 companies together could work something like this:
Big mobile manufacturer X approaches both Nokia and Jolla, licenses the Nokia brand/hardware designs and works with Jolla to put Sailfish on the Nokia-designed/branded handset. Manufacturer X in turn, makes and distributes said handset and pays both Nokia and Jolla in licensing fees and royalties.
Jolla + Nokia: Opportunity for a true N9 successor ?
Using this approach, we the consumer would end up with a true Nokia-designed smartphone/tablet etc, with Sailfish running inside – a true Nokia N9 successor perhaps, maybe with some quality imaging/mapping thrown in ?
There are of course other possible partnership scenarios to consider between the two companies but this would leave both Nokia and Jolla to do what they do best ie. design hardware and work on the software respectively.
With Jolla having not declared any solid information for an upcoming successor to their first Jolla phone release yet, it would leave the doors wide open for some kind of future collaboration akin to this and this latest statement from Jolla fills us with excitement and anticipation.
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Add an option to use open hardware (like the other half). This is an important adjunct to meego/sailfish. It will be bought by people other than consumers (lab researcher. etc) as well as “enchanted objects” ( see book of the same name) consumers.
Hi David, yes that indeed sounds good! :)
I think collaboration between Jolla and Nokia would be very mutually beneficial and between them could result is some desirable top quality products.
This could be a better Scenario: Jolla licenses its name to Nokia, Nokia designs and launches a phone, with two versions, one with Android, other with Sailfish, both by the Jolla name. This would easily circunvent the Microsoft deal, as it says nothing about launching a phone with a alternative name. OR both could sign some kind of cooperation in designing Sailfish and the Z Launcher.
did anyone notice… Intel Atom in the N1?
last time i checked, Intel had moved on to tizen, the official MeeGo successor…
SAMSUNG doesn’t make “big announcements”, they tend to present “real products”…
(see http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-tizen-2014-11 for an update about tizen)
heh Claude I suppose it does help being the BIGGEST electronics cooperation in the world – not like they have to shout to get noticed or anything being on every other billboard on every other street corner. ;)
Although. looks like they might have to do a bit more shouting these days according to recent press: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2839444/Samsung-set-cut-number-phones-makes-Firm-looking-ways-save-money-profits-dropped.html