Jolla to show off MeeGo-based Sailfish OS in November, could be on the market by year’s end

Finnish startup Jolla, the Nokia offshoot that made a deal with its former bosses to develop a MeeGo-based OS, is going to show off its wares on November 21st in Helsinki. The OS, titled Sailfish, will be based on the open-source MeeGo framework but will include Jolla’s proprietary UI design.

Earlier this week, Jolla initiated an alliance with a number of organizations to help build an ecosystem for the MeeGo offshoot, and has promised to share the underlying technology with other members of the group. This means that Sailfish could turn into a mini Android, whereby members are given access to the core framework and can add or remove features as they see fit. Jolla said, “Sailfish alliance software is the MeeGo based Jolla OS openly developed in the Mer project, plus Jolla’s own software and software created by the alliance members.”

While that all sounds confusing, the crux of the story here is that Jolla plans to release its first device by the end of the year, complete with Jolla OS and Sailfish, the UI component underlying it all. While it’s not yet known whether the device will be available here in North America — Nokia’s excellent N9 was, unfortunately, not sold by any of the carriers — having another player in the smartphone world is good news for consumers.

We’re excited to see what Jolla brings to the table. I was able to use the N9 for a brief period earlier this year and really liked its MeeGo software despite a lack of apps available for the platform. Hopefully Jolla, and its alliance members, can improve the state of the ecosystem and bring some needed competition to the market.

Source: Techcrunch