Finnish start-up agrees deal with operator DNA, which will market smartphones on Sailfish platform.
Having formed with the intention of building phones based on Nokia’s now defunct MeeGo OS, Finnish firm Jolla has today revealed the identities of its inaugural operator and chipset partners.
The company has reached an agreement with Finland’s third-largest operator DNA, which will see them market Jolla smartphones based on the MeeGo-based Sailfish platform. “We target to have a network of partners around Sailfish during the coming year,” said Sami Pienimäki, Jolla’s vice president of Sales. “We are partnering up with operators, for example, to benefit from their solid know-how in retail and distribution."
Jolla has also announced that it will be partnering with ST-Ericsson on chipsets for its smartphones, while a distribution deal is already in place with D.Phone, China’s largest mobile phone retailer, indicating that China's ever-growing smartphone user base will be a target market.
Furthermore, while it will distribute its version of MeeGo to device makers for free, the Finnish firm is thought to be exploring a number of other ways to raise funds, such as mobile advertising, software licensing and a possible IPO.
The open-source MeeGo OS was launched by Nokia in partnership with Intel in 2010. However, it was all but canned in 2011 when Nokia acquired Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform for its smartphones.
Despite news that Jolla will be demonstrating the OS at an upcoming event in Finland, it remains unclear as to when the first phones running the software will hit the market.
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