It’s been a while since we heard from Jolla, the Finnish company founded by former members of Nokia’s MeeGo team. The company spent last year making the Jolla phone available in markets outside of its homeland and is now asking for help to fund a new tablet project.
Jolla is calling this ‘the first people-powered tablet’ and says it will run Sailfish 2.0, the latest version of Jolla’s custom open source OS. The device will feature a 7.85-inch 2048 x 1536 IPS display, a 64-bit quad-core CPU from Intel, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (and room for expansion via SD), a 5MP camera in the back, a 2MP camera up front, WiFi, and a 4300mAh battery.
Most importantly, it will run the Sailfish OS, which is based on Meego and is capable of running Android applications. With Sailfish 2.0, Jolla is pushing multitasking, privacy, and performance. It’s also added two new features, called Ambience and Events, that will show users to customize their tablets with profiles for different types of apps and notifications on the home screen.
Jolla launched its campaign earlier today and was looking to raise a total of $380,000. This goal was reached after only a couple of hours, and Indiegogo backers have since pushed the amount raised well past half a million dollars.
Pricing for the Jolla Tablet is set at $199, though early contributors will have snagged a special early bird price of $189. Right now, the tablet will ship to the EU, Norway, Switzerland, United States, India, China, Hong Kong, and Russia when it rolls out in May, but Jolla seems open to adding additional regions based on demand.
There’s a list of suggested countries here, and Jolla is encouraging interested parties to upvote theirs. Canada is on the list and can be found on page 2 of the ‘Answers’ section. The company says it will look into bringing the Jolla Tablet to the most popular countries.
Update (November 21st): The Jolla Tablet has now surpassed $1.1 million on Indiegogo and the company has officially stated they will ship to Canada. The price is set at $209 USD plus $20 for shipping.
[source]Indiegogo[/source]
