Do they actually have a next time? Their business model has essentially been proven false over the last few years -- despite the splash initially made by the tablet project, I haven't seen the kind of interest by cell phone consumers (and especially cell phone manufacturers) in alternatives to Android that Jolla was looking for. With their focus on easy-to-use UI gestures and pretty Ambiances, they were explicitly trying to create a mass-market product, but the mass market doesn't seem to be buying it.

If they were a different kind of company, they might have been able to market their own devices to the kind of folks we saw on Indiegogo, and remain a going concern that way. (After all, that effort showed that a device running an OS like Sailfish, even with sub-par hardware, could pull in millions of dollars.) But they set themselves up as a direct competitor to Android, and that just isn't working out.

Jolla can't run its current business plan just on the income from Intex alone (assuming the Intex project still exists). And I don't see Sailfish on startup devices (like Fairphone or whatever) providing much income either; certainly not the kind of income Jolla might have gotten from a mass-marketed handset.

So, here's the thing -- Jolla, as it is, just can't afford to put out new hardware. It wanted to start licensing its software to the big-name handset producers, but those guys just aren't biting. From my point of view, I can see only two possibilities: it needs to change its business plan in a radical manner (to pique consumer interest in a completely different manner), or it needs to wrap up operations and fold.

I don't know exactly what the latest round of investors are looking for, but if they're hoping Jolla will succeed using the same business plan they started with, Jolla will simply end up in the same place again in a few months: bankrupt.


So yeah, I say Jolla will only have to worry about consumer trust if they ever reach a point again where they are looking for new consumers...