Sunday, 8 December 2013

User Report Tool: Jolla smartphone Apps

Reports so far (filtered)


This result table is filtered to show only app name, rating and comments shared to users. For more detailed results, or sharing the report tool, please contact (see DIT)

Saturday, 7 December 2013

Android and Sailfish Apps running on Jolla

Jolla smart phone, powered by Sailfish OS, aims to be fully compatible with Android Apps. However, Sailfish OS is still in Beta stage and some Android Apps doesn't run properly.

Here you can find a User Report Tool, updated by Jolla owners. If you have a Jolla already, please join us and report any Apps you've tested, or the ones you haven't seen available for Jolla but you'd like to see.

Above you can see a simple preview of already reported Applications. As there are plenty of Android Apps available, and the number of Jolla owners grows too, this preview is kept in a simple table form for faster page load. This preview shows all the rows, but not all the columns. Latest user reports are added to the last row.

Bloggers, contributors, forum moderators and software reviewers:

List above comes from a feed, which is free to use. List could be easily sorted and filtered for multiple purposes, and for example average rating for a single app is easily calculated. Make use of the feed! I have no intention to be selfish with the tool or the user reports - I'd love to see both in use in several countries, serving several Jolla users, just like any open community project. Please contact me for the embedding code of the tool and the feed in desired format, and please feel free to copy the link of App listing above.

The purpose of this is to serve Jolla users, not to advertise or otherwise try to make money with the idea. I hope you share this ideology if you want to embed the tool to your own environment. However, if you happen to use e.g. blog advertisement already, let's not make that a barrier - reaching as many Jolla users as possible, working with a common list, is the essential goal.

Friday, 6 December 2013

Jolla phones on their way to pre-order customers


Jolla phones are beeing delivered to the pre-order customers in several countries, and Jolla celebrates Finland's independence day with opening another prebooking campaign for finnish customers. That gives another chance for new finnish customers to receive the phone by Christmas directly from Jolla, instead of hoping there are any left in a closeby DNAshop. DNA has not started selling quite yet.

UPDATE 6.12.2013 Jolla wishes happy independence day for their finnish customers and opens a new pre-order campaign. The campaign seems to be only for new, finnish customers. At http://jolla.com/fi/#prebook: "Jolla on nyt saatavilla Suomessa! Liity ensimmäisten joukkoon jättämällä sähköpostiosoitteesi. Saat kutsun verkkokauppaamme joulukuussa."

International customers are welcome to leave their email at http://jolla.com/#prebook, and they will also get notified when Jolla is available. No more information about the "when" word available now.

ORIGINAL NEWS 5.12.2013 Several pre-order customers have seen their order status changed from "Paid" to "In picking", and I've heard that few people have already received email with the packet tracking code. Jolla phones are beeing delivered to pre-order customers.

Tomorrow, 6.12. is the Independence day in Finland, so the deliveries here will be delayed to the next week - and if your orderID is a bigger number, you might need to wait for a little while longer still.

But it's coming! You can check your own order status at https://shop.jolla.com/

More status updates to orders are unlikely to happen before Monday because of the holidays in Finland. If your order status is "In picking", you will propably receive email form Jolla during next week, and after the email you should have your Jolla posted in 1-2 working days for Finland, few more days outside Finland.

Let's all have patience and let's avoid sending extra emails to Jolla, as each one takes time to answer and there are many customers waiting for their phone. However, in any issues concerning your order you can contact care@jolla.com.

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Jolla towards new markets: Portugal

Jolla Oy, smart phone designer and manufacturer & Sailfish OS owner and developer, is opening sails in their home harbour Finland and is about to start selling their Jolla phone in Portugal. A long sailing from ice covered lakes to deep seas and sunshine.

Pre-order campaign is starting, and distributor Smarteki9 (which has obvioysly herited some web style from jolla.com) has stated that Jolla phones will be available during the 1st quarter of 2014. Smarteki9 is a new company founded just 3 weeks ago, possibly by Jolla itself (not confirmed).They are located in Lissabon (Lisboa) in a nice looking office building Latino Coelho. Among Jolla, smarteki9 is cooperating with at least Booxmedia.

And why Portugal? Not just for the weather. Here's five facts from the local mobile market there
(Source: ACEPI, IDC)
  • Between April and June 2013 more than half a million (570.000) smartphones were sold, a growth of 25% compared to the same period of 2012
  • In total 1.44 million mobile phones were sold in Portugal, a decrease of 3% compared to the same period in 2012
  • Nokia has taken the lead again in the segment of traditional phones
  • Android continues to dominate consumer preferences of the Portuguese, having achieved the highest market share ever, representing 82% of total sales of smartphones
  • Three operator giants in Portugal have all invested heavily on LTE network. Pt covered 90% of population already in the end of 2012. The giants are:
    • Pt (Portugal Telecom) and its mobile device unit TMN
    • Vodafone (doesn't currently sell phones)
    • Zopt (Zon Optimus) with its mobile device unti Optimus
We can see a pattern here: Traditional Nokia's are soon to be changed to Smart Phones. Nokia has changed to MS Software. A company from Finland (Jolla) might be a perfect choise for a company from Finland (Nokia). Newcomer will support LTE networks, and even the market share of Android could be seen quite full. Operators can be seen competing in the LTE environment, surely welcoming new devices with ability to make use for it.

However, entering the markets could become an issue. Cultural aspects can be handled, and Jolla might know how Nokia did it there earlier, but the competition will be tought - Finland, with a lot of home team supporters, were sheeps compared to what's coming up. It's like leaving clear, cool winter weather of Finland and entering, barefoot, the sun heated sands. Android has builded castles to these beaches some time, Microsoft eagers to have previous, traditional Nokia users to go on with the Brand, and Apple - well, it's Apple. Those fruits just love sun.

If Jolla repeats the tactic they used in Finland, they have an agreement with just one of the three big operators. I'm not speculating too much which one, Jolla has kept this information well hidden. I  make only a tentative guess that it's Pt, with the largest LTE network and some agreement history between TMN and Nokia back from 2005, when they chose Nokia's video sharing services to their 3G network. Vodafone is currently not selling phones.

Jolla, as a Startup company, will not hit the portuguese market with huge or expensive campaigns. Advertisement is probably left totally to the operator, and Jolla will just try to make a difference with what they have, advancing step by step with their ability to react faster to the market happenings. Pricing is a tough question at the Portugals current situation, considering both economics and competing offers between the three giants. For example, TMN (Pt) currently offers Nokia Lumia 625 for 189,90€. I suppose this is one of the cheapest 4G/LTE phones available there. Also Nokia Lumia 920 has a lower price tag than what Jolla had in Finland.


What is interesting, is that Jolla is entering the market pretty soon, but I couldn't find information about Jolla in any of the operators sites. In Finland, DNA published a press release over five months before the sales of the first Jolla phones. This might mean that hasn't agreement with any of the giants, taking just small step to the portuguese market, handling everything just via the distributor. Interesting to see how it'll be, at least Jolla has a lot of plans about the distributor to find partners for branding The Other Half. This coiuld mean e.g. football teams who have strong support among citizens.

"Essa do Suporte de aplicações android…..hmmmm vai dar que falar" (David Ferreira, forum post)

After Portugal:
Jolla's fleet is advancing to other parts of  Europe (early 2014), followed by China (no estimates on when).
More to come, see you.

 by Simo

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Jolla - Developers Dream Phone



 

 

 

 

Jolla - Developers Dream Phone

After three days of the first Jolla Smart Phone sold in Finland, experienced and Linux oriented customers are already sailing in deep seas with their Jolla's. In the net we can already find instructions about how to install Google Play into this phone, and a video showing how nicely GTA3 is running on Jolla Sailfish OS.

So modifying the Jolla's OpenSource Sailfish OS is possible, and Jolla has made it easy too - In the phone settings you can change the phone to Developer Mode (caution on this, this is really ment for experienced users). No other mobile OS offer a developer mode, but in other systems like Android this can be done a bit trickier, via rooting the phone.

 

It's obvious that Jolla hasn't offered this option without purpose. As they aim to wide use of their gesture based operating system worldwide, there are few benefits for themselves offering this option.

Some possible benefits to Jolla for offering customers a Developer Mode:
  • Jolla is looking for the best individual developers to hire them
  • Jolla gives part of their own work to the community, and via that offering better updates faster to all their customers (this kind of community work is common in Linux based, OpenSource enviroments)
  • Jolla is hoping for users to develope some of The Other Halfs
  • Jolla needs native Sailfish Apps fast, and this is one way to offer complete test devices for all interested in developing
  • Jolla's Sailfish starts to spread around the world directly via the community
  • Jolla gains the votes from experienced mobile enthustiastics, and gains some marketing value via them

I see Jolla's phones as a huge marketing fleet for the Salefish Operating System, which seems to be the main product of the company. In future we might see Jolla running campaigns where they award their customers for their work to develope and spread Sailfish all around the world.

Jolla's strategy by Stefano Mosconi:
 "Our plan is a three-phase one: first, we’ll do phones that are Jolla-branded. Then we’ll do co-branded phones – “Sailfish by Jolla.” And then the third wave will be to license the OS to third parties so that they can build on top of the existing open-source project -which we plan to keep open-source- and then we’ll differentiate with the UI."

"Give a million ships to free, open minded sailors and follow them visiting all the harbours of the world, equipping their ships even better and showing their nice ships to their friends, inviting them to sailing with them"

to JollaTides by Simo Ruoho
soon to be Jolla sailor 


Thursday, 28 November 2013

Jolla tweets: Latest comments on Twitter


Live feed from Twitter. Click to reload if the feed didn't open.
Feed updates automatically - just wait a moment to see the latest minutes.

There are several Twitter channels  available. When in Twitter, write @Jolla to the search bar to see the most popular channels.

Clicking here shows you a feed with search #jolla.

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Jolla from different points of view




How do we see Jolla depends on where we stand looking at it. In this article you find points of view from Jolla's operator partner, Sailfish app developers, Jolla's The Other Half hardware developers and, most importantly, the potential customers. Each point of view includes some pros and cons. 

1st point of view: App developers

Marketing a modern phone via community, like Jolla has been doing so far, is very much app dependent and the apps play a big role in the user experience. In general, app developers are not too satisfied with Jolla's app policy so far - Jolla offers their users a way to install Android Apps, both free and paid, via their russian partner Yandex's app store which is rumoured to be preinstalled to the phone (Yandex press release 13.11.2013). Developers doesn't see much income for themselves after this. The income for developers comes from two sources: From users who pay for their apps, and from advertisement included into their apps. After what's heard so far, there could be a lack for both income channels. However, Jolla is working on this via their harbour, as can be read from here (Jolla press release 13.11.2013)

Pros and Cons

  • Sailfish OS uses similar methods as Android OS -> porting existing apps isn't too difficult
  • The idea of a functional Other Half and multitasking with active covers is offering something new to work with
  • Jolla seems to be ready for open discussion with their App developers
    • The documentation of Qt5, Sailfish OS and porting isn't done the best way
    • Jolla is feared not to offer paid Sailfish apps in their own app store
    • Jolla markets Android apps for customers, leaving less demand for new sailfish apps

2nd point of view: Hardware developers

Jolla has split their phone in two, offering ”The Jolla Half” with the 4.5" touch screen, Sailfish operating system and common connectivity ports extended with two nice ports capable to handle new harware. The Other Half can be connected to the phone via these ports, and the phone's functionality can be changed totally via different halfs. In general, hardware developers are very interested about this kind of consept. Manufacturing functional Other Halfs has a potential market for both new and existing Jolla's customers, but first, of cource, the manufacturers need to see some customers. 

Pros and Cons

  • Jolla's phone is equipped with NFC and I2C, giving developers multiple possibilities
  • The idea of a functional other half could have a strong potential new market
  • Jolla seems to be ready for open discussion with their hardware developers
    • No customers yet, a lot of phone's to be sold before first Other Halfs are available
    • Startup company with limited budget can't invest too much for hardware development
    • Proper documentation about hardware drivers is lacking, or is hard to find

3rd point of view: Customers

In general, customers are excited for a new company entering a big market. Most of them are looking forward to see and feel the phone in their own hands before decision to buy it or not. Some Linux lovers or finnish fans (Jolla is a company in Finland, and the original Linux was also built by a finn). Jolla's open source policy plays a role having these fans on their side, and the fans are hoping that Jolla's policy won't change in this matter.

Pros and Cons 

  • Jolla, as a finnish company, is lucky (or wise) introducing a new phone to the market when previous finnish giant Nokia sold it's mobile phone business to Microsoft.
  • The idea of a functional other half is bringing something new – maybe not when the phone is introduced, but surely later, when enough phones are sold.
  • The Other Half can potentially keep the phone up to date longer than what we are used to seen in mobile market. Customers doesn't need to change their whole phone – just a half might be enough.
    • The first customers are not totally satisfied with the informing policy of Jolla. A lot of questions about what they are about to get are still in the air, and Jolla is asking their first customers to pay the full price before answering all these questions
    • No Other Halfs yet – a lot of phone's to be sold before first Other Halfs are available
    • Jolla is a new, small company. Some customers wonder how will it unlike in the market ruled by pretty big shoes (Apple, Samsung, Google and future newcomers like Opera, Mozilla). Jolla will need some finnish strenght of will here

4th point of view: Operators and other marketing partners

In the day of introducing the phone Jolla has only one visible partnership in operators field, finnish operator DNA. Jolla is looking forward for partners in several countries, hoping them to market their new phone. Operators are generally open for new models fitting their ideology and brand. Most of them want to offer their customers a vary of choises, and Jolla as a brand is seen as a welcome newcomer. Partenrships with other marketers are agreed worlwide, one of the biggest beeing chinese D.Phone (partner of China Mobile, China Telecom and ChinaUnicom).

Pros and Cons

  • New phone might bring in new customers
  • By the experience from DNA, according to them, Jolla seem's like a nice partner for an operator (DNA press release 22.11.2013)
  • Jolla is equipped with LTE network (called also 4G in some countries), and operators who have builded it up are willing to sell phones using it. Among other LTE capable phones, Jolla's price tag seems reasonable
    • Partners not totally satisfied with Jolla's informing policy. Until the day of introducing the phone (27.11.2013) Jolla has given more speculation than absolute facts about what and when the shops are about to sell
    • No Other Halfs yet – for an operator it would be nice to offer Jolla phones to their customers with its full potential in use, but a lot of phone's are to be sold before first Other Half's are available.
    • Jolla is a new, small company. Some operators want to see some more development before they make decision about partnership

5th point of view: My personal opinions

I can see Jolla as a welcome new company with a lot of potential. The market they are entering seems quite full and ruled at first glance, but looking a bit furher we can see a huge and still growing market with plenty of room, especially in big countries like India and China.

To enter this market it requires a phone with something new. Unfortunately today, when the first phones are sold and the phone is widely introduced to the world, Jolla's first phone has only a new, gesture based operating system. Well, there is a big promise of something new along – in a form they call ”The Other Half”. In my opinion, they should have introduced a variety of different, functional Other Halfs in this first day, as this day has an essential value when hitting this big market.

Marketing in general has been quiet, propably for financial reasons. It might also be a chosen policy that all the marketing is left to Jolla's partners – focusing Jolla's own resources and knowhow to develop a phone as good as possible.

In the end all this closes to simple questions:
Do I need a new phone? Is it Jolla? For me: Propably yes (two times).

Another, new and unlike point of view from Jolla's CEO Pienimäki

Great news for Open Source fans: "According to Pienimäki, Jolla is also planning to let individual users to download Sailfish operating system into their Android-devices." (Read the whole interview from source Taloussanomat, a finnish business magazine. The interview was published 2013-11-27 at 18:30.

UPDATE 2013-11-27 18:30
- Jolla has just revealed a user guide for the phone.