The hardware is still outdated, whether you think differrent or not. Outdated doesn not neccessarily mean bad hardware. But for 200+ € it is outdated. As simple as that.

Not necessarily.
There are quite a few "outdated" car models for example that sell for higher price than when originally rolled off from the factory.

generally i agree; it is the software that matters.
but I think you are guilty of posing a wildly exagerated argument that no-one is really advocating.

q) has anyone asked for a phablet sized 4k screen?
a) no, just something midrange size and res, with good brightness and contrast for reading.

q) has anyone asked for a 16core CPU?
a) no, but 2GB of memory for a multitasking OS would have been nice given the OOM problems.

q) has anyone asked for a 40mpix camer?
a) no, but something that can take a non-blurry pic in anything but perfect studio lighting would be great.

these are absolute problems, that exist regardless of the price you sell the device at.

aside from the absolute problems there are also the relative problems that arise from comparison with similar devices. here the J1 has a growing problem given the remoreless march of new £150/$200 android devices.

So here we are, coming up to the two year anniversary of the Jolla phone release. I am still using mine - but won't be for long, unless we get a successor.

I've generaly really like my Jolla phone. I still use it like as my only phone. But I don't really see much future for Jolla. The biggest problem is that it is just too late. Too, too, too and the some too late. The whole smartphone market has allready been 'solved'. Few years ago in fact.

Jolla has just about as much hope as anyone trying to break into into the car market as a new mainstream car brand. Its no going to happen. Its Android for most of the people, Apple for the rest. Thats it. Maybe few years ago it would have been possible. People just don't find phones exiting enough anymore to try anything new. The whole thing is settled by now.

I guess maemonians might object with whatever open source/free software/whatever idealism, but that won't work either. Just look the last 20+ years of Linux trying to be something at the consumer market with nothing to show for it (and no, Android doesn't count as Linux).

Again, Im still happy with my phone. Overly optimisticly hoping that there would be a follow up, but I don't see one coming. At best, there might be something coming from Jolla's immoral partnership with the russian goverment, but I don't see that going anywhere either. And even if it sold few copies in russia, it would still crash once the russian peasants finally get sick enough with all the looting of national wealth, corruption, lies, propaganda and wars that come with Putin's rule and all western busineses (like Jolla) that made deals with the blood thristy bastard.

Well don't just stand there: go get that searchlight Elon Musk left us in case another entrenched market needed to be disrupted and meet me on the roof of city hall! Hurry, we don't have much time!

You forgot too little. Too little too late. Apple could afford to launch with no copy&paste because there was no alternative. Anyone who comes and wants to break the water today cannot behave so nonchalantly. Half-baked systems just don't excite anyone any more.

Practically that means that there is no hope for anything different anymore and world will be owned by Android and Apple forever, until there are no more mobile devices. Of course, assuming that it's true.

No, it means that newcomers have to try harder. And, most importantly, they must know what they are doing.

No. There will be no newcomer with enough funding, time and just about anything else to break through if the feature set has to be similar to those systems developed with big money for over decade bundled with services run with even bigger money. There will always be someone to say "features X and Y are missing, so they don't know what they are doing, they cannot even remotely think to break the water with such behaviour..."

So, enjoy it while it lasts.