Jolla officially announced the Android eco system compatibility of their platform Sailfish OS. While N9 users have been begging for that feature, future Jolla phone owners can benefit from famous Android applications like WhatsApp, Instagram etc. Next to that Sailfish OS aims to be compatible with common Android Hardware - such as smartphones and tablets. Finally Jolla published news considering a 2nd pre-order possibility.
Sailfish OS has achieved a major milestone whereby the OS is now compatible with the Android ecosystem, in terms of application and hardware compatibility.
Android applications run directly on Sailfish OS without any modifications
Users enjoying the unique gesture-based and modern Sailfish OS user experience will be able to take full advantage of the Android application ecosystem available through various app stores globally. Jolla will cooperate with leading global app stores to ensure users can seamlessly download Android apps just as they would do on any Android device.
“For example, highly popular apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Spotify run directly on Sailfish OS. Also Chinese WeChat – already with over 400 million users – runs on Sailfish OS,” says Jolla CEO Tomi Pienimäki.
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| Jolla device with installed Android apps |
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| Jolla device multitasking with running Android app (top-right) |
Sailfish OS runs on common Android hardware
Jolla has made a major breakthrough in Android hardware compatibility by developing Sailfish OS to run on common hardware produced for Android, particularly smartphones and tablets. Vendors interested to utilize Sailfish OS are now able to develop phones and tablets based on many different chipset and hardware configurations. This new level of compatibility will enable device vendors who use Sailfish OS to fully utilize the existing Android hardware ecosystem.
Jolla believes that this breakthrough offers growth opportunities of significant scale for Sailfish OS globally, especially in China. “We believe Sailfish with Android compatibility is a highly relevant mobile operating system option for major mobile companies in Europe and in Asia. We are already in discussions with several major Asian vendors regarding this opportunity,” says Tomi Pienimäki.
Next production batch will be opened for pre-orders this week
The last weeks have been very dynamic in the mobile industry and after the Microsoft-Nokia announcement the strategic position of Jolla and Sailfish OS has strengthened significantly.
“Due to extremely positive feedback and increased demand in the past weeks, we are offering another pre-order opportunity for our second production batch later this week through jolla.com. This will be targeted to Finnish customers who want to express their passion for theFinnish mobile industry,” Pienimäki concludes.
Source: Jolla Press Release
