I think this has serious potential for good commercial and critical success.

I'm sure with the people that are working on it, the OS itself and the UI will almost certainly be good, though what exact form they will take, only Jolla knows for now.

However, I think success or lack of it really lies in the hardware. Whilst I don't think anyone expects a small start-up to provide the best AMOLED screen on the market or a Pureview rivalling camera, I think the general build quality and look of the device will be very important, as will the choice of CPU. The latter is particularly crucial, given the spec-race that has developed. I'd love to see a dual-core A15 ... Maemo / Meego / Mer is such a powerful OS, and it'd be great to see it with some more horsepower than the - by market standards - extremely underpowered and behind-the-times 1Ghz A8 single core.

By the time whatever they're working on hits the market, quite a few such SoCs will be available -- both T.I. & STEricsson dual-core A15s will be in devices in Q4 of this year, other OEMs to follow.

P.S. Would also love to see an E7 like piece of hardware