Well you could say same about Canonical not being able to make a deal with Chinas largest smartphone supplier and focusing on world largest smartphone market.

Jolla might say "we will target on US market later on", but what they really are saying is that they might someday enter to the market. It just seems so obvious on how they talk about their market focus. China->Asia-->Europe-----> North America.

US is pretty much lost market with the current juggernauts and operators having full control on the puppet show. If Jolla somehow makes it big someday they might go for it, but i don't see it happening otherwise.

It's not about carriers. It's about delivery logistics and warranty coverage, as well as about compliance with local regulations (FCC and etc.). They can do all that without dealing with carriers. One doesn't need to care about juggernauts. Just offer an option to buy unlocked handsets in each market either through Jolla's official store, or through retailers but with normal warranty. That's it. Forget about carriers - there are more and more contract free / prepaid options emerging, which can be used with any decent unlocked GSM/LTE handset (just take care to cover all common frequencies - and you are set).

Jolla probably wants to avoid US's insane patent landmines in the beginning.

That's a possible concern, right. Does it mean Canonical is less scared of it?

Less scared, or more comfortable in their financial situation to fight possible lawsuits.

Jolla is a startup after all. I find it very plausible they want to gain some fniancial strength before risking the ligatious landscape of US.

I had a chat with Jolla and some others on twitter a few wks back, then one of Jolla's lead engineers joined in.
The exchange that transpired left me with the distinct impression that a mediocre SoC (for a premium device) is quite possible.
Novathor U8500 or L8540 "class" at best....
Maybe I'll try to dig it all up later if I CBF'd, I hope I'm wrong but I'm calling it now; mediocre* SoC will be used.
That's possibly excusable so long as the sw experience is; highly efficient/performant, open/hackable/flexible, quite feature-packed for a 1.x OS, & rock-solid stable for a 1.x OS.
Plus they'll have to make amends in at least one other hw area, e.g. the display etc...

*compared to other top-end smartphones that are available before or at the same time.

U8500 sounds bad (no LTE). L8540 looks better already, though it's not the latest one (L8580).

Yup, best it'll be IMO is "L8540 class", & by the time it's in consumers hands that'll be a weak proposition compared to what's on the market.
BUT (as mentioned) hopefully they'll make amends in other ways, + they probably should no longer price it at the very top-end (which is what they've hinted they'll do).

well, you cant build a premium device on an not premium SoC. hope you are wrong. If they use stuff like that they can't charge premium price like 500-700 Euro. It's more like 300 Euro.

N9 was sold with a lowend outdated single core SOC and Nokia charged a premium price for it. Did you buy it or didn't you?

I'm fine with a dualcore SOC clocked at "medium" ranges (1,2 - 1,5Ghz), even LTE is useless for most europeans for the next 2 years. Pair it with 1 - 2GB RAM and it will be running super great if sailfish uses ressources like harmattan. Battery life could be good too with such a "medium" SOC.