Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

So as to minimise derailment of more narrowly focused threads, now might be a good time to start a more general thread.
It can be for folks who want to talk about Sailfish(Jolla) prospects, based on what we know & is rumoured.
It can also be about putting forward what we think their strategy/strategies must be, based on what we know.

To kick-off discussion, I'll post some articles from MNB (comments are sometimes more insightful than the articles):
http://mynokiablog.com/2014/01/05/el...of-work-to-do/
http://mynokiablog.com/2014/01/06/mn...-sales-so-far/

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Good. Im very intressets to hear and read abort These things. Started a similar thread called jPhone ll With great discussion when someone suddenly moves IT to off topic and discussion died after awhile. Maybe they didn't like My threadline or they dont like discussion either way it's good to have a thread like this. The future is coming...

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

uhm... this guy/girl says that Jolla said that they'd sell 20k devices in 2013, but I recall them saying they'd "deliver" 20k "this month [December 2013] alone". Of course this was on twitter somewhere, so good luck finding it.

Typical sold != delivered problem in the mobile industry.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Yup, Janne (a common Finnish name for men), a well-respected commentator/writer there.
But a bit too keen to pooh-pooh Sailfish(Jolla) at every turn from my observations there thus far.
He comes across well-intentioned & straight-up, but there's def. some astro-turfing sometimes.
Admittedly I'm not a heavy commenter/reader there lately, so I may not have the full picture.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

I guess part of the reason this thread exists, is because of my comments opposing the statement that Jolla couldn't be working on a next model.

Well, Kazam managed to come out with 7 phone models in their first product announcement. Surely Jolla is likely to have a much heavier hand on the hardware design process than Kazam did, but even so I don't think anyone would start up today without planning to announce at least one product a year.

As it is, even Firefox OS and Ubuntu Phones are struggling, there was never any real MeeGo phones and we've seen nothing of Tizen yet, so I think Jolla would be naive if they expect to live from the Sailfish OS alone. They come from Nokia, and their first model has sold reasonably well. I expect a 2nd model to be out in time for the christmas 2014 sale.

Wouldn't you think?

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Regarding sales, I've always figured it's a good indication of how many devices there are if you count the downloads from the Jolla store. Android compatilibity is the most downloaded app and it has currently a bit over 12,000 downloads.

I believe it counts downloads per user (a Jolla account), otherwise if you were a developer of course you would make a bot to download it a thousands times a day to keep it on top of the lists.

So 12k to 15k is a good estimate of sold Jollas.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

12k to 15k delivered devices so 20k seems like a fair enough estimation of soled devices Atm. Let's say 20081 to be exact.

Will jolla stay Europe Only? Tizen will come out hard in Asia in march(Atleast try) and so if jolla will make a move there now is the time.

My bet. JPhone ll announcement August.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

I did not install android support and hopefully I am not alone!

Cheers,
b.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

It looks like Intel didn't announce anything about their handset SoCs on the CES 2014 conference. Not a good development for the future of Sailfish if we care about moving to native drivers.

Looks like Tangier / Merrifield is a missed target anyway - it doesn't use Intel's GPU, so drivers are busted. We'll have to wait until Anniedale / Moorefield, and that is almost a year away: http://wccftech.com/intel-2014-roadm...rivals-coming/

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

The Other Half was announced in May, Jolla works quite open and announce their products early. I'd want the product delivered at least Dec. 10th, if I wanted to hook up on the christmas effects.

Jollas best marked would be expected to be Finland. However, they have Asian business partners and funding... I don't know. Can they easily upscale if the demand is high? Then I guess they'd want to open up in Asia. If not, they probably want to build up a name in this market first.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

I am 99% sure they said that they were working on a hardware update - whether that's a new device or not, it's a different story, and that they wanted to go to China before Feb 2014. I think the latter is more important than the device at the minute, to bring in interest and cash.

Bear in mind that in China they may aim primarily at installing Sailfish on Android devices - and yes, this is for them, not for us, maybe the community can derive from that, but I don't know ;-)

Lastly, cash is very important - if Jolla can self sustain themselves, it means that the VC's can't say much about their precious ROI and they can have a fair amount of freedom (read: they won't be forced to hire an "Elop" type CEO). They should, of course, think about growing, meaning bringing in more investment and the like.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

What's jolla next move after opening sales to Europe?

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

I've read some Finnish articles about Jolla lately.

CEO Tomi Pienimäki said the global phone market is huge, so Jolla doesn't have to be for everyone. They are targeting a market segment, however it can't be just a "nerd thing", a right balance is needed.
(Mobiili.fi 19/Dec/2013)

Can we expect a new phone from Jolla in 2014? Tomi Pienimäki replied: "Clearly devices have a limited lifespan. I guess you could say it's probable. We do have plans for that."
(Mobiili.fi 19/Dec/2013)

I also liked this quote from co-founder Sami Pienimäki:
"Thanks to Nokia, a great amount of mobile sector know-how was born here, be it engineering, industrial design, marketing, sales or product development. This must be treasured. It's a responsibility for us all."
(Talouselämä 29/Jul/2013)

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

From stezz: http://stezz.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/...e-or-less.html

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

China would be a good bet, possibly partnering with a Chinese brand and releasing a cheap-ish phone with Sailfish OS on it. It would need integration with Sina Weibo and other Chinese services of course, but Jolla hasn't updated their own official page since October, so not sure if anything China-related is happening right now...

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Jolla will have some kind demo space in MWC.
http://wpsailors.com/2014/01/10/joll...nokia-and-nsn/

I wonder if there will be any announcement? I can understand that they simply want a demo area in such a large expo to get more attention towards them. It's not like it's easy for many outside Europe to test the device.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Considering that Jolla launched their device not too long ago and that they are fully busy bringing Sailfish out of the 'beta' phase, I doubt that there will be important announcement, but I also think think that MWC is an excellent place for Sailors to... go fishing for operators. Any deal brought home would make their future more solid.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

i kind of disagree. They could announce the easy installation of sailfish os on lots of android devices. Or some special TOH or an agreement with another country operator...etc...
But let's see :)

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

I still doubt there is a second Jolla phone. Now if it come something 2014(unrelated to MWC) its probadly just upgrade. Lets say 2Gb RAM instead of 1 or 32Gb MMC instead of 16.

But what they will demo on MWC is probadly not a phone. Maybe some OTH stuff? Lets hope :)

It actually MUST get an bigger operator on Q1 2014 or else Jolla is doomed. Sorry to say that :(

But most people does not buy a phone in a online shop :(

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

I'll say this really depends on the strategy in China... if they manage to get money for the OS installed in other devices, then it'd a lot of profit with very little underlying cost, so it won't matter if they get a bigger operator or not.

Weren't they talking to operators in the UK anyway? I wonder what came out of that... maybe they are watching them perform, which Jolla is doing very well IMO.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

well no one invests money on company if its not get more money back in the end, that includes China. So still they need more operators. More operators == more customers == more income == money back to investors. Btw. I would not trust China only if I were them... There is alot still lot of corruption in that area.

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Many people do buy cell phones in online stores. And cell phones as well as tablets are amongst the most sold items in our national web shops. I buy all mine like that. It depends on national differences in the telemarket, though. I.e, I understand it's not as common in the USA to buy a phone outside of a contract...?

Re: Sailfish(Jolla): Prospects & Strategy
 

Here is a fairly positive review in Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspen...shows-promise/