Can Sailfish OS
Create An Impact In The Increasingly Cluttered Mobile OS Market.
Finnish
startup Jolla has come up with a brand new smartphone, christened Jolla, which
runs on the all-new Sailfish OS. This startup was founded about two years ago, in
March 2011 and has its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The Jolla smartphone
has been in the pipeline for around two years, which speaks volumes about the
amount of time that it takes to launch a smartphone that runs on a completely
new operating system.
What Led To The
Development Of This New OS?
The members of this startup company were
once working for former phone-king Nokia. These members then decided to leave
Nokia in order to pursue something that the company couldn't manage to do – make
optimum use of the promising MeeGo operating system. The MeeGo operating system
was designed to be a platform for mobiles, tablets, entry-level desktops, and many
more such devices.
However, this OS was cancelled in
September of 2011, in favour of a new operating system named Tizen. What
followed was an important announcement by Finnish startup Jolla, in July 2012,
which was regarding their plans to go ahead with Mer, the community-driven heir
of MeeGo. They planned to create a new operating system, named the Sailfish OS,
and use it in their first smartphone, which they would release in the year
2013.
The Sailfish OS is intended to be used on
the smartphones that Jolla comes up with and also for the smartphones of other
licensees. Even though the developers of this OS are currently focussing on its
use in mobile phones, they also intend to use it for other computing devices in
the future.
What Does The Sailfish OS Have To Offer?
The Nokia N9 was the first and by far the
only smartphone to be powered by the MeeGo operating system. Even though the
smartphone did grab eyeballs, Nokia discontinued the use of this operating
system in favour of the much-more promising Windows OS.
This however, led to new startup called Jolla
taking over the reins of the MeeGo OS and revamping it to create the brand new
Sailfish OS, which powers their first smartphone. This new smartphone has also
been named Jolla, after the company that has manufactured it.
The Sailfish OS comes with a partly or
fully proprietary user interface, which has been programmed by Jolla and facilitates
multi-tasking. Here’s a closer look at some of the key features that this new
OS has to offer.
The Facility To Install Android Apps
Given the fact that Android is immensely popular
among smartphone users around the world, Jolla has been insightful to include
this feature in their smartphone. In order to install Android apps on your
Jolla smartphone, you would need to install a third-party app that would allow
you to download apps from Google’s Play Store. After you do that, you can have
access to the thousands of apps that are available on the Play Store, even
though your device isn’t running on Google’s Android OS.
Excellent Hardware Support
This open-source software is based on the
Linux kernel, which is why it offers excellent hardware support to its users. Sailfish
OS is capable of supporting both ARM as well as x86 processors, which gives it
quite an advantage in the hardware section. This OS can even be installed on
your Samsung Galaxy S4, which will give you custom ROM as well as the ability
to manipulate your phone, according to your preferences.
Gesture Navigation
In terms of navigation using gestures,
the new Sailfish OS is quite similar to the latest version of Blackberry OS.
Gesture navigation allows you to navigate through your operating system more
easily. This gets rid of the need to have any physical buttons on the device as
it operates purely on gestures alone.
Even if you are in the middle of a game,
you can launch a second application, without having to close the first one.
This is quite a benefit for those who like to have more than one app running simultaneously
on their smartphone.
Jolla – The First Sailfish-Powered Smartphone
The Jolla
phone review is pretty impressive, accounting for why the company was able
to hand out the first 450 devices already, most of them being part of their
pre-sales campaign. The company is now busy shipping handsets throughout
Europe, to those who have pre-ordered them. Finland, Germany, and the UK showed
keen interest in this new launch.
The
Jolla phone review mentions the smartphone to have a 4.5-inch display, along
with an 8-megapixel camera and an internal memory of 16 GB. It also has a
dual-core chip and 4G. One of the highlights of the device is that it attempts
to break down the walls between various operating systems, with its unique
feature that allows you to install Android apps on a non-Android phone.
Can The Sailfish OS
Manage To Leave Its Mark In The Market?
This
Jolla phone review has proved one important point – startups are capable of
manufacturing impressive smartphones that run on brand new platforms. The
Sailfish OS offers its users a wide range of features, including compatibility
with Android apps, which makes for a rather smart move by Jolla.
Android,
iOS, and Windows are the three dominant operating systems in the smartphone
market, currently. In order to match up to them, Sailfish OS will have to put
up a brave fight. However, given the fact that is quite unique and provides a
user experience that is very different from what smartphone users are
accustomed to, it is likely that this new OS will make waves in the days that
lie ahead.
For
a startup that is essentially made up of ex-Nokia employees with innovative
minds, their achievements are quite commendable. Jolla has already mentioned
their intention to sell millions of handsets in the future, which speaks
volumes of their determination to succeed, even in the face of such intense
competition. They have also spoken about their plans to launch other devices,
should their first smartphone become a rage with the masses. All in all, the Sailfish
OS seems quite promising, primarily due to its uniqueness.
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