UPDATED: Jolla have said it will have its own distribution channel where users can download Android apps for their new smartphone.
The Jolla smartphone running with the new operating system Sailfish is due out at the end of 2013 and is available for pre-order now, and the company has said it will be “Android app compliant”.
However, the company was mum when What Mobile asked whether this would mean a Sailfish app store, and whether Android apps would need to be adapted for this store, or estimates for apps at launch, saying this information was not yet available.
Chief executive Tomi Pienimaki told ZDNet it was a question of agreeing with “whoever the partners are” that the user could download applications from ‘app store x’.
“There are quite a lot of stores where we can get Android.”
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Jolla, the guys who left Nokia to continue work on the MeeGo operating system, are set to launch their first phone running on the Sailfish operating system.
Sailfish is a new mobile operating system developed by Jolla, which is derived from work done on both the Mer project and the mobile OS developed by Nokia, MeeGo. When Nokia stopped participating in the development of MeeGo, several employees left to form Jolla.
And lo, the first phone to run the new operating system has been announced.
The device will have a 4.5 inch screen with a dual core processor, 16GB internal memory (and microSD options), an 8MP camera and removable back covers called ‘The Other Half’, which are colourful and which the software “magically” changes to match, the company said on its website.
“Colours, fonts, tones, profiles, functionalities – all will adapt just as you wish by simply uniting the halves.”
It aimed to ship by the end of this year but pre-orders are open now for â¬399 ( £338) and the device would launch in Europe first, Jolla said.
The other interesting feature is that the device would be “Android app compliant” with the company describing Sailfish as a mobile optimized operating system which was open.
“This is the world’s best stage for your apps, including those for Android.”
Android compliant sorta implies that either apps on Android could be easily ported over to Sailfish or that apps downloaded from the PlayStore will run on the new mobile OS.
The website also states that the user interface was intuitive meaning it could be operated without looking at the device – whether that’s marketing speak for “it’s super interactive” or whether, in fact, you can tell what to do without looking at your handset, remains to be seen.
The company said the device would be buttonless, instead using gestures for navigation.
And Jolla looks like it has more to say, with a live stream event today at 4.30pm here.
