Wednesday 21 June 2017

Jolla Tablet: All the schedule updates

Latest update: November 8, 2017

Jolla Tablet campaign, launched on November 2014, is a crowdfunded project by Jolla Oy to manufacture a PeoplePowered tablet running on Sailfish OS. Doing it together, Jolla communicated with the campaign participants in advance aiming to deliver a tablet on which the customers could have a word on. Originally planned to be shipped on May 2015. Now, a year three years after the launch...

Jolla Tablet: Updates on Shipping schedule and Refunding schedule


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In short: Latest updates on top

Each date is detailed better under the short list. The most important lines are linked to the details

Jolla Tablet shipping schedule - all updates and reasons for delays


November 19, 2014
Jolla Tablet campaign was introduced on November 15 at Slush 2014 event, and the campaign was launched few days later on Indiegogo on November 19th. Original shipping schedule was set to May 2015

April 23, 2015 by Juha Paakkari
"in the spirit of transparency, we have some necessary news to share: We’ve been working very hard all year to get the Jolla Tablet ready. We have progressed very well in many areas, but as there are still many open items remaining, we are forced to postpone the delivery start of the Jolla Tablet."
"We aim to start shipping the Jolla Tablet before the end of July 2015 in the order of the Indiegogo contributions. Actual delivery times may vary depending on your region. If you’re a Jolla Tablet contributor, you’ll receive an email about the next steps very soon." 
Hardware and software updates 
"we’ve had some implementation challenges with the original display."
"the new user interface design is already in good shape. Also the new camera/media stack based on gstreamer 1.x and the camera adaptation now work for the tablet, new interface implementation is getting ready to be merged to the main codebase"
"Some parts, for instance the Android app support and the support for multiple devices (tablet & phone) in the Jolla store backend and client need a lot of work still. Just to mention a few items." 
Later updates 
Juhani Lassila on June 1st: "Hi talonz666. We are still aiming to start the Jolla Tablet shipments to Indiegogo backers by the end of July. This does not postpone the schedule."
Iekku Pylkkä on June 2nd: "We will ship developer devices by end of June."
Iekku Pylkkä on June 26th: "As we earlier communicated [0] we have had a bumpy road with the display development for the Jolla Tablet. As we see the display is one of the most crucial quality factors of the product we want to take this with extra care. The integration challenges continue with the display, which will impact the developer device program device sending schedule. We are working together with our ODM to solve this and hope to start the program soon!"

July 6, 2015 by Juhani Lassila
"July is here and we want to update you on the latest Jolla Tablet developments."
"We and our component supplier are still facing some unexpected challenges with the display change. Our end-July shipping target may be affected by the extra work necessary to complete the display switch" 
"This involves implementing a new logistics solution, which goes hand-in-hand with the improvements we are making to our online shop, where you will finalize your contribution. There is still work to be done, more on that soon." 
Hardware and software updates: 
"Sailfish OS 2.0 is getting closer to desired maturity. We are implementing the final missing features and performance optimization, and carrying out quality assurance testing around the clock. In addition, we are customizing the Sailfish OS native apps for the Jolla Tablet experience."
"There is good progress on the accessories side. Lastu and Mapbagrag are on schedule, and we are planning to introduce additional accessories to complement your Jolla Tablet experience"

July 23, 2015 by Carol Chen
"It is approaching the end of July, and we’d like to update you briefly on the progress of Jolla Tablet development and delivery schedule."
"The risk of the July delivery schedule slipping which we mentioned earlier has unfortunately materialized due to the challenges with the display. Ramping up for general shipments to contributors will take about 3-5 weeks following the Developer Device program." 
"The Developer Device loan program has been launched with invitations sent to selected developers. We anticipate that these developers will get their hands on Jolla Tablet developer devices from the pre-production batch very soon, as we will be shipping them in early August." 
Hardware and software updates: 
"Regarding the unexpected challenges with the display component we told you about in our previous Jolla Tablet update, we are happy to report that the critical issues around this component have been resolved! There are still some tweaks to be done and loose ends to tie-up, followed by several rounds of rigorous testing to ensure a high level of quality."
Later updates:
Carol Chen on July 24th: "Hi laruibasar and anomac, it will be about 3-5 weeks following the shipment of developer devices, which translates to roughly end-August -> mid-September for delivery start."

August 5, 2015 by Marko Saukko
"We really wanted to maintain the shipping schedule for the devices, so we discussed with the factory and agreed on overtime work on Saturday, August 1st."
"Much to our chagrin, we discovered that the machine which glues the front housing to the back of the laminated display+touch+glass assembly was broken. Repairing it took some time and we missed the planned slot on Friday, which means we had to reschedule once more."
"Given earlier delays with material preparation and board delivery, we had to agree on a new schedule with the assembly factory."
"From the original schedule posted last week, we were delayed by a couple of days, but we made it up during the weekend, and this first batch is now complete and looks great!"
"The next steps will be getting the logistics ready for the shipment of tablets that will start their journey to the Developer Program members. More information about that will be provided in an upcoming blog post."
Later updates: 
Carol Chen on August 5th: "Hi abhishek_pc, ramping up for general shipments to contributors will take about 3-5 weeks from this pre-production batch shipment (as mentioned earlier), which puts us in the end-August to mid-September timeframe."

August 7, 2015 by Iekku Pylkkä
"I’m happy and excited to tell you that the pre-production tablets for the Developer Device Loan Program members have been shipped, and they will be in the hands of developers really soon!"
"Furthermore, we will soon deliver the SDK (Software Development Kit) with added capabilities for developing tablet apps to the Developer Device Loan Program members. "
"SDK release target date is in sync with the Sailfish OS early access release." [ed.note: for public release]
August 13, 2015 by Sami Maala
"As we’re getting closer to shipping the Jolla Tablets to all our dear Indiegogo contributors, we’d like to update you about what’s coming your way soon." (on Sales box and accessories)
August 20, 2015 by Juhani Lassila
"We have some magnificent news for all of you! As of today you can pre-order the Jolla Tablet from the Jolla Online Shop. It’s a limited batch, so if you want to get the best tablet experience on the market, better act quickly!"
"Shipments for earlier Indiegogo contributors will start in early September, and shipments to pre-order customers from this phase are expected to start in the end of October."

September 2, 2015 by Marko Saukko
"The shipment of displays was sent again from the warehouse last weekend. We received the displays today, and now we can start the display lamination. To make things slightly more exciting and tight for us, there’s also a public holiday in China from the 3rd to 5th of September to commemorate the end of WWII. But rest assured: we will have the devices assembled with good quality in time for shipping."
"Many of you have asked about the shipping schedule. Our operations folks will update this in more detail in another blog post this week, but what I can say now is that the first group of contributors from our Indiegogo campaign will receive invitations to the Jolla shop to place their actual orders within a few days to start the delivery process."
Later updates: 
Carol Chen on September 5th: "Hi Dulog, we were busy getting the invites ready and doing final testing and tweaking of our webshop, and instead was not able to get the blog post out on time. We will have some updates in the coming week, thanks for your patience!"

September 9, 2015 by Juhani Lassila
"Sailfish OS 2.0 now available for early access users!"

September 14, 2015 by Review Jolla
Latest shared shipping schedule seems to be early September. First financiers, participating campaign on November, did you get a tablet?
SDK release was supposed to be in sync with Early Access release. App developers, how does it look? I haven't found news on that anywhere.
According to Jolla Blog on September 2nd, another blog post on the schedules was expected by September 6th. I haven't read that yet. There seems to be a 3rd postpone, not officially announced

September 18, 2015 by JollaHQ on Twitter



September 22, 2015 by Irina Avetisova-Halonen
"The Jolla Tablet project has finally reached the point that we can start the shipment process"
"Today we’ve sent out the first order completion invitations to a group of early Indiegogo contributors. We start with a small group to ensure that everything works as it should. So please bear with us – if you didn’t get an invitation yet, no reason to be worried, it is coming. "
"Once you’re done, you will receive an order confirmation email from us. After this, it takes up to 10 business days for us to pick and pack the order and dispatch it from the warehouse. "
September 23, 2015: The schedule for the first ones
  1. Invitations sent on September 22nd (if you didn't get one yet, you were not contributing among the first ones on day 1. Be patient, the invitation will arrive some time later)
  2. Confirm your order following the instructions in the invitation email
  3. Wait for confirmation email
  4. Your tablet is sent within 10 business days after that. Shipping takes 5-7 business days to the most of the destinations.
  5. By this information, we can expect to see the first tablet delivered on around October 13th. Shipping time varies depending on your country and area.

October 3, 2015: New schedule for everybody
All Indiegogo contributors are expected to see their Jolla Tablet shipping during October. This schedule is based on a fact that shipping of later pre-order campaign is scheduled to start in the end of October, and Jolla has shared that all the contributors are receiving their tablets before the pre-order customers
Pre-order customers should receive their tablets right after the contributors, starting on the end of October and during November
Jolla Tablet pre-order campaign is closed - the limited batch is SOLD OUT. There's no information if we'll see another production batch. Also the indiegogo campaign is closed

October 6, 2015: Shipping starts, according to "shaglund" on TMO
"Well, I just received an sms from DHL. Something sent from Hong Kong." (TMO source
"I just got a text from DHL, if it's the Jolla I'm going to cry. " (Blog source)
"It takes up to 10 business days to process your order and pick and pack it" (Official source)
"The Jolla Tablet pre-ordered during August-September 2015 will start shipping in the end of October." (Official source)
So, one of the first contributors is seeing his tablets being delivered. Seems that the test batch announced on September 22 is now leaving the warehouse in Hong Kong, and if everything goes well, the rest of the contributors should receive their Jolla Pre-Order Shop invitation very soon.
Update: Also Jolla confirms the earlier informed schedule is still valid:
Update: Here's a screenshot of one delivering, posted by user attah on TJC. This one is expected to reach Sweden in short time, arriving to destination on October 9th. Is it The First One?

Update: The First One has arrived to customer in Hong Kong
Congrats to those who contributed during the very first minutes. You're about to receive "The Best of Mobile 2015" tablet soon! For the rest:


October 8, 2015 by Antti Saarnio (Head of Jolla) [4th delay]

Antti shares his very deep apologies:
"On behalf of my team and myself, I would like to apologize for this. This is not a formal apology on paper – this is a deep, sincere apology combined with a Japanese style bow with my forehead touching the floor. "
The schedule was updates as follows:
"The good news is that we are shipping the first batch of the tablets now. At the same time we are preparing the second batch and aim to start shipping at the beginning of November. Finally, and assuming all goes well, we aim to start shipping the remaining of the Jolla Tablets during December 2015."
"Now I expect that those who pre-ordered the Jolla Tablet during August-September 2015 are asking “what about my tablet?” Well, we will certainly ship yours too, but only after fulfilling our early Indiegogo backers contributions. According to the current plan, this will also happen during December 2015. "
There were only some Jolla Tablets shipped to the very early birds (first 20 minutes contributors) between October 6-8th. While they were very lucky for being early, the rest of us must hold on, some for a month, some for two and some until the end of December. The reasons for the 4th delay were shared only very generally:
"There are many reasons for these unexpected delays"

October 13, 2015 by Sami Maala
"We also don’t want to over-promise, but rather do our best to ship as much as possible within wave 2 and then the rest in the final wave. That said, unfortunately, it seems that the lion’s share of deliveries are aimed for shipment start in December."

November 11, 2015 by Juhani Lassila [5th delay]
"Unfortunately, we have not been able to keep this timeline for wave 2. This can be attributed to various factors and simply the fact that we are still a start-up. We are pushing to start wave 2 shipments a couple of weeks late, i.e., by the end of November."
Jolla didn't share much, we still don't know for example how many contributors fit into the 2nd wave. However, the community has been active following the process, bringing us some light to the darkness: They have found out that also the 32GB Jolla Tablets from 1st wave are still being delayed. The 1st wave (early October) included only 64GB tablets, and only for the first few contributors. 32GB Tablets for those first few hundred are still expected to be shipped during November. 
There has been less than 300 Jolla Tablets in shipping, while about 10000 contributors are still waiting for more information. Let's see if the December batch will be on time, and if not, will there be at least new information in time. Jolla shared, in a way, a warning of possible delay to the 3rd batch as well:
"The wave 3 schedule will be communicated as soon as we have more details. There are a few unclear items related to this, and we do not want to provide you with incomplete information." 

November 21, 2015 by Antti Saarnio to Techcrunch. Quoted:
"Crowdfunder backers of the Jolla tablet who haven’t yet received their slate should also expect more shipping delays. “This will have an impact [on shipping of the slate] but not a huge impact if we succeed with the December financing,” adds Saarnio."

November 22, 2015 by Helsingin Sanomat [6th delay]. Relevant parts translated to English from two Finnish articles:
Earlier, Antti Saarnio, Head of Jolla told to Helsingin Sanomat that Jolla was negotiating funding of 10M EUR, of which small part was supposed to be received on November and the most on December. 
"One of the key investors has announced that it is unable to make a decision in November. We have a good chance of getting the necessary funding acquired in December." 
According to Saarnio, all 70 employees at Jolla are under lay-offs. 
Now the shippings are completely on ice, says Juhani Lassila, Head of Communications at Jolla.
The company took new pre-orders yet in the autumn, as there was a vision that the deliveries could be soon started in a larger scale, Lassila says.
However, according to him, the situation changed when it was found out that the display manufacturer had to be changed* because of technical reasons. In addition, the availability of funds was delayed in November.
Lassila says that the company's goal is to continue to deliver the ordered and paid tablets. There have been preparations for shipping of the second batch of devices, but the company is unable to provide a schedule for that.
* According to earlier information by Jolla, the final display (after 2 replacements) was tested and approved already on August 1st, before the pre-order campaign was launched. Article in Helsingin Sanomat seems to enlighten that after the 2 display changes Jolla have changed also the display manufacturer.
UPDATE on November 23rd: More information added from another article in the same Finnish magazine 
UPDATE on November 24rd: "We are also analyzing different alternatives to solve the Tablet project and compensate to our customers for the late or missing deliveries", says Saarnio. This is the first time a word "missing" is introduced as an option, suggesting that Jolla is yet unsure if the tablets can ever be delivered.

January 1, 2016 by Juhani Lassila on Jolla Blog
"We don’t have all pieces of the puzzle figured out just yet, but a few things are now certain: we are happy to say that we will be shipping an additional small batch of the Jolla Tablet to early backers during early 2016, targeting to send invitations during January. The bad news here is that we are not able to complete the production to fulfill all contributions. In other words, all of our backers will not get a Jolla Tablet."
January 21, 2016 by Juhani Lassila, comment on Jolla Blog
"Hi everyone. The Jolla Tablet project update is just around the corner, sorry to keep you all waiting. We realize fully the frustration and all, but we really need to figure all the practicalities before we communicate about the process going further. Stay tuned!"
Also another comment, suggesting the project is reaching it's end, was shared on fb on the same day: 
"We are just looking into practicalities how we'll finish this project - once we have this figured out, we'll let all of you know. Sorry to keep you waiting!"
January 28, 2016 according to post by Antti Saarnio on Jolla Blog and comments by Juhani Lassila on a Mer community meeting
The very early contributors [Our estimation: The first 40 minutes since the campaign launch on November 19th, 2014]: Jolla will ship 540 units starting from February. No schedule was shared when will the last ones ship on this batch. 
The rest of the contributors [Our estimation: All the perks bought after 9:40 UTC on the very first day]: Jolla aims to refund the total contribution, including shipping and all accessories. Half of the refund will be done between February 1 - March 31, 2016. The other half latest on January 2017, resting on Jolla's financial situation permitting.
Pre-order customers: Refund for the total value of the purchase. Schedule for this refund was not shared, pre-order customers were guided to wait for an email.
All contributors and pre-order customers: "You will be receiving an email with instructions on what to do. Please wait for that, before contacting our service and support team."
This email is expected to include at least the following options:
  1. Invitation to Jolla Shop to complete the order (only for the early birds)
  2. Option to change the perk to a refund in two halves (for all contributors)
  3. Option to change the perk to a donation to Jolla (for all contributors)
  4. Guidance for receiving a full refund (only for the pre-order customers)
Early birds using the 2nd or 3rd option will give the next contributors in queue an opportunity for the 1st option. 
There will be no new tablets manufactured. The 2nd batch of 540 units is already manufactured, and the 1st batch of 121 units is already shipped. 
The total amount of customers with Jolla Tablets running on Sailfish OS will be 661. Additionally, there might be a few introduction / review devices left for demoing purpose. 
With these amounts we can call Jolla Tablet running on Sailfish OS a vary rare specie. 
There is yet another batch of Jolla branded tablets sold via Taobao, China, but Jolla shared that they have nothing to do with those as a company, and they are still investigating the issue. These tablets are told to run on Android. 
Earlier, Jolla also shared about a possible surprise for the contributors. Juhani Lassila confirms that "We have something up our sleeve yes, but we just didn't get it into this communication." 

February 19, 2016: Juhani Lassila to us after newsletter from Jolla
Pre-order customers refunds are to be processed in few days with PayPal. Those who pre-ordered Jolla Tablet via Jolla Shop should receive a notice from PayPal in 2-3 weeks. Read the Newsletter
Indiegogo contributors are not informed further yet, but Juhani Lassila, Head of Communications at Jolla, shared us via email that the shipping and refunding process continues on its all parts. Jolla's earlier announcement to them is to deliver half of the refund between February 1- March 30, 2016, and the second half latest on January 2017.
March 1, 2016: Shipping has slowly started, Jolla is on schedule
1st Wave is currently shipping: 
Customers are sharing pics and delivery notes for both Jolla Tablet and Lastucase on their social media sites. According to Juhani Lassila on Jolla Blog, 77 tablets more have indeed been shipped, additional to the 121 units shipped earlier. It seems that these belong to Wave 1, for which invitations were sent during October 2015 and the 32GB models were further delayed. People had already paid their order and taxes back in October. 
2nd Wave invitations in couple of weeks: 
Lassila anticipates that new invitations are going out in the next couple of weeks. By what has been shared earlier, I calculated that there are still 463 Jolla Tablets to be shipped, covering about the first 40 minute contributors (original confirmation email from Indiegogo received before 09:40 UTC on November 19, 2014)
Preorder customer refunds DONE: 
Lassila shares that a refund has been executed to all the autumn 2015 pre-order customers, and the money should arrive latest during March 2016.
Indiegogo contributors refunding is on schedule: 
Jolla is on schedule (latest informed) also for the people who didn't make it to the shipping, targeting that the 1st half of refunds is well underway before the end of March 2016. Earlier, it has been shared that the 2nd half might take as long as until January 2017 and still be dependent on Jolla's financial situation in the future. 

April 2, 2016: 7th postpone: shipping pending, the first half of refunds not in time
Invitations to finalize the order in Jolla Shop (for the very early birds) have not been sent to everybody in the beginning of the queue. Especially customers in Russia were left without one without an explanation why. 2nd wave also seems to be pending for an unknown reason. Following the latest public activity by contributors, it however seems that the 2nd wave of 463 tablets is currently shipping.
Recently, Jolla has shared the following regarding the new invitations:
    •  On March 1st on Jolla Blog:
      "We anticipate these invites to go out in the next couple of weeks"
    • On March 16th on Jolla Blog:
      "you will get an invitation to the Jolla Shop soon"
    • On March 30th via blog comments:
      "Hi. Yes you should be getting an invitation to the Jolla Shop to finish your order soon." & "Hi Jani. You will receive the invitation to the Jolla Shop very soon!"
50% refund didn't make it to all contributors in promised time (March 2016) either. On a recent blog post Jolla explains this by "international money transfers involved", promising the refund up to 3-4 weeks after requested. This delay was unexpected, assuming that Jolla surely knew about the transfers needed but didn't guide their contributors to request the refund in time to reach the promised schedule. The guidance was sent to all contributors by March 16th, suggesting this is only a short delay. 
Full refund for later pre-order customers should have been received by all of them by now.
Important note for contributors: Jolla might not accept new refund requests after April 16th, so check your email including your spam folder. You should have received a guidance for how to get your refund, or information that your tablet shipping is pending. 

April 12, 2016: Update on schedules announced on Jolla Blog
The 7th postpone above got cleared out today in a blog post by Juhani Lassila explaining that the team is small and that "There are lots of moving parts both in the device shipment and the refund side of things"
New schedule for Jolla Tablets (the most of 2nd wave): Early birds who were invited but have not yet completed their order in Jolla Shop should do that before April 14th, 2016 as instructed on email from Jolla on last week, or their spot will be given to the next in line. These tablets are then dispatched between now to May 12, 2016 (in 2-4 weeks after a completed order). The earlier schedule was promising 2nd wave to start shipping on February, now clearing out that the 7th postpone is about two months delay for some contributors.
Unfortunately it was still left unclear if all the 1st wave Jolla Tablets have been shipped or not, and also if all contributors in the 2nd wave have been invited or not. Our earlier calculations, based on numbers shared by Jolla, made it quite clear that the 2nd wave should include 463 tablets. Yet the latest blog shares that "close to 400 new invitations" were sent, making it possible that there might still contributors to be invited later.
New schedule for the 1st half of refund: Those who would like to get a refund should react to the email sent by Jolla latest on April 16, 2016. Email was sent around March 16, and a reminder on April 11th. Jolla anticipates that a 50% refund is paid during early May. The earlier schedule for 50% refunding was by the end of March, now clearing out that the 7th postpone means 4-6 weeks delay o this.
Schedule for the 2nd half of refund: No changes announced for this, so the earlier schedule: latest on January 2017, if Jolla's financial situation allows that, is the last announced. 

April 29, 2016: The 1st half of refund being paid for some contributors
Note from sender, Jolla Asia Limited:
This is the 1st half of your refund amount. Thanks for supporting the Jolla Tablet project.
The above is a message from PayPal, received by some contributors today. The majority of contributors should receive this today or tomorrow. Jolla is also delivering both new Jolla Tablets and new invitations for the contributors next in line, after some of those who had received an invitation earlier didn't confirm their order in a given time.

May 3, 2016: 8th postpone, minor delays
Jolla didn't quite make it for the majority of contributors to receive their 50% refund during April. A press release shared today doesn't try to explain this, but clearly schedules this to the ongoing month (May 2016)
Also the 2nd half of refunds might experience delay, as the English press release schedules that as "within a year after round one", making the latest payments to arrive on May 2017. However, the January 2017 schedule still informed in the equivalent Finnish press release is still possible. The 2nd round of refunds is dependent on Jolla's financial situation allowing. In practice, this would mean closing a round D financing which it corrently planned for this year. 

June 22, 2017: 9th postpone announced by Sami Pienimäki (CEO)
Jolla didn't manage to deliver the 2nd half of refunds by their earlier announced schedule (end of May 2017) and missed to inform their contributors for three more weeks about this. However, Jolla's CEO Sami Pienimäki has now shared the following update:
Jolla Tablet refunds 
"It has been a while since our last update about the remaining Jolla Tablet refunds – we are committed to it and we will be progressing on it in a pace our financial situation permits us to do. Thanks for your patience and understanding." 
"Thus, we have now decided to take a phased approach to the refund process and start executing refunds every month the company makes positive cash flow from its core business – the Sailfish OS licensing. We will start this process in July 2017, and move in a pace that fits our financial progress described above. This means that some of our tablet backers will get their refund earlier than others, which is unfortunately unavoidable in this situation. To make it fair for everyone we will start these refunds in a random order. Those random picked for the first run will receive an email from us to confirm all the needed details. You’ll also have an option to support the Sailfish OS movement simply by donating your remaining refund, if you so wish." 
"I can assure you that this topic has been painful for everyone of us here at Jolla. My apologies on the delayed process and thank you for your continued patience and support on this matter." 
source: Jolla blog


August 5, 2017: 10th postpone announced by Sami Pienimäki (CEO)
Minor delay to the earlier announced schedule (about starting executing refunds on July). Refunds are delayed by couple of weeks, announced on Jolla Blog by Mr. Pienimäki. According to Jolla, 100 randomly selected Indiegogo backers were selected on July 28 and they have been sent an email about refunding options. These 100 should be refunded after August 14, 2017, leaving 7200 backers on hold. This additional information was commented by Jolla's Community Manager Mr. Noori:
 "We will take action on that after 14th of August."
CHECK YOUR EMAIL you used when registering to Indiegogo!  
"If you haven’t received an email by now, then unfortunately you aren’t one of the first 100… But hopefully the next round will being your email up!"
"The number of backers that we currently owe money to are somewhere around 7300." 
If you have received an email from Jolla with 3 options, you were in this group. If you did not receive an email, you are yet to wait. No date was shared for the rest of the backers (7200) but Jolla aims to refund more backers each month the company creates profit. The random selection in use is coded by Sailor's at Jolla, and the selected backers are receiving an email with options how they'd like to be refunded. Backers have 2 weeks to reply after receiving the email, selecting one of these options:
  1. Receive credit for the same amount of money that they can choose to spend on future Sailfish programs. (such as using the credit for Sailfish OS for Sony Xperia X, which we are considering and will confirm separately if feasible)
  2. Donate the remaining 50% refund sum to the development of Sailfish OS
  3. Receive the remaining 50% refund
source: Jolla blog

August 18, 2017: Round of refunds executed, update by Sami Pienimäki (CEO)
"On the August 15th we successfully refunded the first batch.
As communicated before, 100 backers were given 14 days to check their email and confirm their information. There were 71 reactions logged including donations and those who chose the credit option. People who did not react have been put back to the pool of backers.

As of now, no exact date is yet decided for the next round, however we are working to make it happen during September. An updated blog post will be published regarding the second batch moving forward.

We certainly are trying our best to refund everyone as fast as it is financially feasible for us."
source


August 31, 2017: All good in the refund land!, comment by James Noori (Community manager at Jolla)
"We are actually working on that as I write this comment. We are all about good will, Antti ;) Also, although it’s unrelated to this very post, but we are working on another part of refunds as well (Will update the respective blog post when we’re ready) so it’s all good in the refund land!" source


September 15, 2017: Update on Jolla blog by Sami Pienimäki, CEO at Jolla:
"We are continuing with the same pace for this month as we did during August and are refunding another 100 people, completely randomly, out of the pool of backers. The backers are chosen using MySQL mathematical functions just like last time. We do feel the urge to repeat that while you may think 100 is not a huge number, this is what our current financial situation allows us to do."

Regarding the earlier 29 backers who did not respond to the email sent on August, "we are sending them a final reminder before making any further decisions"

November 8, 2017: Update on Jolla Blog by James Noori, Community manager at Jolla
"We started to pay the second batch of our refund program to the randomly selected backers using MySQL mathematical functions yesterday, after solving the problems that delayed the transaction. As of today, 8th of November 2017, 83 of the backers who chose to receive their money will receive a PayPal notification following the transfer of the funds."

This update was about the round of refunds announced on September. Jolla has shared earlier that they execute more refunds on each month the company makes profit. It seems that October wasn't profitable, November we don't know yet. Counting August and September rounds together, Jolla has now handled 154 contributors and there are currently about 7150 contributors still on hold for their refund. According to the earlier calculations made by the community, more than 1700 contributors have given their perk for the software development, and according to Jolla more than 800 have used part of the upcoming refund for purchase of Sailfish X operating system for Sony Xperia X.

Latest known shipping and refunding schedule:

  • Wave 1, 198 Jolla Tablets. Shipped between October 2015 - February 2016
  • Wave 2, 463 ~400 Jolla Tablets, Shipped between April 21 - May 10, 2016
    - Wave 2, 63 more Jolla Tablets, shipping unknown, possibly shipped during 2016*
  • Wave 3, >9000 ~7300** Jolla Tablets. Shipping cancelled. Refunding situation:
    - 1st half of refunds by March April May 2016 (Fully executed during April and May 2016)
    - 2nd half of refunds by January May July 2017 Each month with positive outcome, starting on August 2017
    - Situation, updated on November 8, 2017: 71 backers refunded/otherwise agreed on August 2017. 83 refunded/agreed on November 2017. 7150 backers on hold.
  • Pre-orders, ~2000 Jolla Tablets. Shipping cancelled. Refunding situation:
    - Fully refunded, refunds were executed on March 2016
* It was eventually left unclear if the waves were shipped in full. There might still be customers who have been invited to finalize their order but have not yet received Jolla Tablet. 121 Jolla Tablet 64GB models were shipped during October 2015. 77 Jolla Tablets more were shipped on February 2016, mostly 32GB models but also 64GB models. About 400 tablets more were yet shipped by May 2016, and 63 more might or might have not been shipped later. No more tablets will be shipped by Jolla.
** It was calculated by the community, during following the tablet perks in the Indiegogo campaign, that more than 9000 tablets were financed in the Wave 3. Later on July 31, 2017, however, Jolla's community manager commented that Jolla currently owe money to somewhere around 7300 backers. It is possible that there are backers who have contributed their refund (fully or by half) to Jolla between the cancellation and the refunding process.
More detailed schedule, including Indiegogo contribution times and exact earliest/latest shipping dates can be found on page Shipping schedule


Share and Shout! Your friends might read it.


By: Sailfish OS Reviews
Sources: Jolla Blog (posts on the days mentioned), sailfishos.org, TMO, Jolla Pre-Order Shop, TJC, Digitoday, Techcrunch, HS(1) & HS(2) (Finnish), Mer community meeting, TJC
Published: 2015-09-14 20:32 UTC
Updated: 2017-11-08 15:49 UTC

26 comments:

  1. Well, I've ordered my JT on November 20, still have no news on delivery schedule. Not really worried much, but don't like the situation. Too much delayes for so little communication.

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  2. Thanks for putting this timeline together: it is much more useful than some of the argumentative and over-the-top comments on the Jolla blog ("scam"? "class action"? please..... :-) ). I am trying not to get worried, but if they have hit a new problem, the longer Jolla wait before coming clean about it, the worse it will look.

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  3. of course they've hit some problem, otherwise there would be happy people sharing unpacking videos and photos by now. But reading those (quite awesome indeed) comment thread on the other blog, it seems that there are understanding people, as long as the communication works. Now it seems it does not. And thanks for the timeframe, nice to see it in one place! Not worried quite yet here, but I can see if some people finds a reason to be... You're doing great work keeping us up to date, thanks!

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  4. I'm much more worried on the loyalty of their participants... Comunty is the key value on crowdfunding campaign, and your post is a nice example of both good and bad communication for any start up company. Hope they read this at Jolla too, and take a note.

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    1. ^ Communication, sorry for typo

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  5. "First financiers, participating campaign on November, did you get a tablet?"
    ... I contributed on Nov/19 and I have not the invitation yet.

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  6. My first experience as contributor to crowdfunding campaign has been very negative .
    The jolla people do not seem to understand they have responsibility to the contributors.
    They have very selfishly ignored the people that put their money to their project .
    The silence from the jolla people almost feels like they have something to hide,is it possible they took the money and run.
    Is it possible we will never see any tablets?

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  7. It might be worth having a look at all of the second comment (September 12, 2015 - 4:39 pm) to an article dealing with Indiegogo campaigns in general at http://wp.josh.com/2014/01/21/read-this-before-you-contribute-to-an-indiegogo-campaign. That second comment when read in full appears to be referring to the tablet.

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  8. I read the http://wp.josh.com/2014/01/21/ and my conclusion is that I am a fool and so are 10000 other people.

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  9. I'm not one to gripe. I have experienced quiet a bit of delays with crowdfunding before. But I honestly think it is very bad that they opened pre-orders before anyone who contributed has even gotten a shipment notice.

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  10. Reality check! http://wp.josh.com/2014/01/21/ isn't a leak! It was written months before the announcement of the Jolla tablet (on 2014-01-21). The second comment mentioned above was written more recently but contains no new information. Anyone can dispute a credit card charge for any reason, and in most cases you will receive a refund no matter the merits of your claim.

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    1. Reality check indeed given today's news (November 19, 2015) news about Jolla's difficulties...

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  11. Just one correction: When the Jolla tablet was announced in Novenber '14, the corresponding press release stated that "shipments are expected to start in the second quarter of 2015", which means any time between April 1st and June 30th. No promise was made to ship specifically in May.

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  12. Another small correction: Officially it was a crowdfund project by Jolla Asia Ltd from Hong Kong, and not "a crowdfunded project by Jolla Oy" as you wrote.

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  13. Thank you both for your suggested corrections. For the first by ossi1967, I left that part out in purpose, as the schedule was refined to May already on the next day (in the campaign page as "estimated delivery"). I didn't find it reasonable to add another schedule, being valid only for one day. However, you are correct in what you wrote about the press release.

    For the 2nd, officially speaking you are right too. Reason to use another company in handling the financial part might be that Finnish law doesn't accept crowdfunding as a form of financing. I still see this as "project by Jolla Oy", but one might say "campaign by Jolla Asia Ltd." as well.

    Thanks for everyone else for your comments as well. Hope to update you later - I'm sure Jolla does their best and more to handle the issue!

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  14. Thanks for clearing with who we are dealing.
    I taught we were dealing with 100% Finnish company .
    And as we know you can trust the Finns.

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  15. I'm not worried. The tablet will arrive and for me, if it happens before Christmas that's ok. Yet, I've been on quite a few (software) projects and learned the hard way: communication is King. Working like hell to get the release out or the bug(s) fixed is what you are doing 24/7, but if you forget to inform your customers, they will slowly start to mistrust you and may even walk away. I've been forced by some of them to inform them on progress on daily or even hourly basis. Not nice (for techies), but it works.

    If you really can't give a release date, be a man about it, and tell your customer. Provide the reasons why and most of them will understand, if you're even come up with a good suggestion on how to fix things. I've been surprised by using this approach a few times in the past. Of course not everybody will understand or accept, but that's part of the deal.

    I joined this crowdfunding, as I trust Jolla as a company and therefor I'm still convinced things will turn out ok. I knew that the tablet as we will get it, didn't exist at the moment I signed up (Nov. 19th , 2014). Jolla has been quite open about the issues they ran into while developing the 'final' product. I presume they are working their pants off getting it out the door. Yet, they do have PR people whose job it is to inform people so they should be doing the same right now. For now, that's the only thing that annoys me.

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  16. I hope that you are right. I agree with most of what you say, except that Jolla were not very open about the display problems at first: they just said that they were having problems with it. They only gave details after several commenters said that they wanted to know more and could cope with more technical stuff. It is not good that they have gone quiet when we have passed the previously announced shipping target, with only vague hints here and there, and tweets that look like automatic replies. Are the delays purely logistical, or have they hit some new problem? IMHO they ought to at least tell us that much. As you say, communication is King.

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  17. Why are the people from Jolla so quiet?

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  18. "Communication is King", and especially in this case, involving a company saying they are "Doing It Together", and additionally involving a crowdfunding project, as on those communication is expected even from parties who tend to communicate less in general. And... where there is no communication, there can't be community

    "Why so quiet" In my earlier experience, the people at Jolla tend to share information when they have enough of confirmed information to share. This policy doesn't quite fit into projects like this, so they definitely have something to learn from this all.

    As a community, it's great to see we're both loud enough and factual enough in a situation like this. Reading all the comments above I find our feedback as constructive, which should only help the adapting and learning in their end. Yeah, it would be excellent to see for example one Sailor at Jolla joining this discussion, but I guess both them and us are currently just waiting for the schedule update itself. Still, it would be nice to have some communication also in the meanwhile, even a simple "We haven't forgotten you, please be patient" might do some good. Let's stay loud, aiming for better future!

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    1. You are right, Simon, communication is very important and the Jolla company failed to do this properly. But we know now that there were/are financial problems. The idea of making a tablet came too early, it was a mistake. And financial ptoblems are alarming not only towards the employees, but also to potential investors. So I can understand why they struggled s long before making this public. It is a tragedy and I hope that the company will recover from this. I was in the early 2nd wave for the tablet. But I am not angry about the delay, because I know that the company did not do this on purpose. They failed, but we must forgive them. Now I am curious about how they solve the ploblems.
      You talk about 'community', like many more 'members' do. There is a difference between so called community members and the company itself: only the company is financial responsable. Community members are not. They have no shares, only a certain commitment that is free and can be temporarily. This is also the reason why Jolla cannot make its OS totally open source. The company has a responsability to its employees and community members do not have that. A company can never totally rely on a community. We buy and give our ideas and comments and some developers create an app or TOH. I personally am more disappointed about the lack of stunning apps and games. Most of the Jolla apps are imitations that were already made for iOS and Android. Only a few developers made brilliant apps for Jolla. So, 'community', what does it mean? Where were the fantastic contributors?
      I very much hope that Jolla will become the third OS, but they have to be more business-like in order to receive that. Helas.

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  19. https://twitter.com/JollaHQ/status/644822604981903360

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    1. +1 Thanks for sharing. I added that into the end of post as well

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  20. We're sailing: https://blog.jolla.com/jolla-tablet-operations/ !!!

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  21. Try this, if you think that you are “early bird”: https://jolla.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/210322097-Jolla-Tablet-invitations-FAQ

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