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posted by n1 on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the on-sail dept.

Finnish software maker Jolla, founded by laid-off Nokia employees, has revealed a crowd sourcing campaign for a tablet computer. The Indiegogo campaign had a goal of $380,000 which was reached within a few hours, prompting Jolla to add more devices (at a slightly higher price).

The tablet will be running the as-of-yet unreleased Sailfish OS 2, and have technical specifications rivaling the iPad Mini 3 and the Google Nexus 9, but at about half the price.

Estimated delivery is in May 2015. The campaign goal of $380,000 was reached in just a couple of hours and the campaign will run for 21 more days.

Some hardware specifications:
1.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel
2 GB RAM
32GB EMMC ROM + SD slot
7.85" 2048x1536 IPS display (330 ppi, rivaling iPad Mini 3)
WiFi only
4300 mAh battery, considerably smaller capacity than competitors

Related Stories

Jolla Tablet Crowdfunding Update: $1.3m and Counting 26 comments

Life seems pretty good right now for Jolla, the Finnish mobile device maker formed in 2011 by former Nokia employees. Their tablet crowdfunding goal of $380k was reached hours after the Indiegogo campaign started. Currently they've raised just over $1.3m, prompting Jolla to add new funding targets this week:

The price is also competitive, with Indiegogo backers being charged $209 for the device and Jolla anticipating the final retail price of the device will be $249...if total funding reaches $2.5m, Jolla will begin offering HSDPA connectivity as an add-on for $30.

In answering the question to whether the market needs another tablet, Jolla CEO Marc Dillon responded:

"The great thing with this tablet we are launching is that not only is it state of the art in software, it can also be state of the art in specifications and at a very competitive price. Now we are really able to compete with the big companies on what they have traditionally dominated - the supply chain..."

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:58AM (#117932)

    I don't see how this even matters now. Tablets are old hat. They're a failed fad technology from 2011.

    Yeah, I know, there are a very, very small number of niche uses for tablets. But that's true for just about everything, including buttplugs.

    For the other 99.9995% of tablet users, well, it's hard to call them "tablet users" when their tablets sit in some drawer collecting dust, having not been used in many months.

    Why is anyone really wasting time with tablets any longer? It makes sense that Apple is, because they're not selling tablets, but rather luxury goods. No other tablet manufacturer has really had much success at all. It may not have been total, absolute, indisputable failures for Samsung, but I wouldn't call their efforts successful.

    This seems like a really pointless effort to me. Now it's not as big of a failure as Firefox OS is, for example, but it really doesn't have much point, either.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:43AM

      by frojack (1554) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:43AM (#117939) Journal

      I don't see how this even matters now. Tablets are old hat. They're a failed fad technology from 2011.

      If you bought a tablet in 2011, and never bought another one, I can see how you might think that.

      The rest of the market has moved on to their second or third tablet by now.
      Here are some sales figures and ownership numbers for tablets [tabtimes.com].
      Here are some additional predictions. [statista.com]

      Tablet sales are not climbing as fast as they did originally, nothing does, yet the year over year growth is STILL climbing by about 11% in the US market which already estimated at 64% saturated.

      Are you sure you weren't confusing the tablet for the netbook?

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:53AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:53AM (#117964)

        The GP didn't say that tablets don't sell.

        The GP said that after tablets are bought, they aren't used. The GP also said that they aren't big money makers (as in profit, not just revenue) for all vendors except for Apple. Both of those statements are true, and backed up by the data you've referenced.

        I think it's fair to consider them failures if they didn't bring the manufacturers any profit (and in many cases they brought a steep loss), and if the consumers who bought them don't end up using them. They're waste, not goods.

        • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday November 20 2014, @06:01AM

          by davester666 (155) on Thursday November 20 2014, @06:01AM (#118008)

          I don't understand how they plan to make a tablet that has the same specs as the iPad Mini 3 [the latest one], but for half the price. From teardowns and analysis, Apple makes about 35% margin on the product, and that's will their enormous ability to get volume deals on everything [parts and assembly]. These guys are basically making a one-off using off the shelf parts with no real volume discounts for anything [and certainly nothing that can get it in the same class as Apple's CPU]. I suppose Intel might give them Atom chips and a bunch of help designing the hardware, just to get another hardware "win"...

        • (Score: 2) by quadrox on Thursday November 20 2014, @06:15AM

          by quadrox (315) on Thursday November 20 2014, @06:15AM (#118012)

          There might be people who don't use their tablets, but just as you believe them to be a majority, I believe the to be a minority. Since I own a tablet (and use it a lot, e.g. right now), and you probably don't own one, I'm willing to bet that my view is correct and yours is wrong.

          • (Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday November 20 2014, @09:40AM

            by KritonK (465) on Thursday November 20 2014, @09:40AM (#118054)

            Since I own a tablet (and use it a lot, e.g. right now)

            Me too! I once jokingly said that I'd buy a mobile phone only if it had all the features of a mobile phone except being a telephone. This is exactly what tablets are, so I bought one and cannot have enough of it. Tablets are great for reading, and watching videos and playing games is more enjoyable on a larger screen. The only drawback is that you cannot carry them in your pocket, but smaller devices are just about as practical as pocket-sized umbrellas: very easy to carry around, but pretty much useless when needed. I carry my 10.1" tablet in my backpack and don't feel at all inconvenienced by its size.

      • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:21PM

        by opinionated_science (4031) on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:21PM (#118078)

        A good point. I have 4 phones and a tablet, and a I bought this one.... Phones wear out quicker... Although I am hoping Jolla have a phone refresh -my N9 is nice but...

    • (Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:45AM

      by Tork (3914) on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:45AM (#117941)

      For the other 99.9995% of tablet users, well, it's hard to call them "tablet users" when their tablets sit in some drawer collecting dust, having not been used in many months.

      I don't even think a raving Apple fanboy would believe that.

      --
      Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:05AM (#117944)

      You keep your buttplugs; I'll keep surfing porn with my tablet. Its small, so I can use my other hand for something big. You use your butt plugs and a big laptop and your other hand for something small.

      Oh but also good for all those apps that don't work on cells but are great to have when out and about the town.

      • (Score: 1) by c0lo on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:11AM

        by c0lo (156) on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:11AM (#117945) Journal

        You use your butt plugs and a big laptop and your other hand for something small.

        I'm sorry, but I can't: on the top of my lap is taken by somebody bigger than a laptop or a tablet. And no, I don't have spare hands for something small.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
    • (Score: 2) by n1 on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:15AM

      by n1 (993) on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:15AM (#117948) Journal

      I wish you were right, don't enjoy using them and try to avoid it when possible. However, I do use it to store technical documentation when on the move. Much easier and more convenient than carrying a laptop, or car full of dead tree manuals.

      The use case I see the most is kids watching youtube, gaming streams and playing mobile games. A tablet is just another computer to a new generation, the laptop was the previous model. It is for the most part a consumer device, not a professional tool.

      On TFS: Looks like it could turn out to be a great replacement for my Nexus 7, and I don't enjoy using touchscreen devices at all. I really really hate touchscreen.

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:25AM

        by frojack (1554) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:25AM (#117951) Journal

        Any random bluetooth Mouse and micro keyboard/case gets you past the touch screen for typing anything.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 2) by n1 on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:36PM

          by n1 (993) on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:36PM (#118156) Journal

          I have thought about that, but really I don't have any desire for major content creation on a portable device, I like sitting at my desk for that. I have a Galaxy S Relay as my phone, which has a physical qwerty keyboard so I can use that send out some quick emails, but in my use case when i'm on the road, email isn't really suitable most of the time because waiting for a response isn't really feasible when visiting a client.

          Is personal preference but it just doesn't work for me doing 'real work' on a small device, I find it annoying enough on my mid-range laptop because of the poor resolution. Too spoiled with having multi-monitor desktop setups in recent years.

          Can I be a tech dinosaur at my age? (mid-twenties)

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @06:02AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @06:02AM (#118395)

            Can I be a tech dinosaur at my age? (mid-twenties)

            Yes you can. I'm in my mid-20s too and I've been a tech dinosaur since 2008 or so, when smartphones replaced PDAs. Used to rock a PDA, have never owned a smartphone. Now I rock a powerful ultrabook and a large high-res-multimonitor workstation. :-)

        • (Score: 1) by monster on Thursday November 20 2014, @05:47PM

          by monster (1260) on Thursday November 20 2014, @05:47PM (#118179) Journal

          But then you either go with them around, ending with a 'laptop in parts', or leave them someplace like if it was a PC and miss them when you need them on the go.

          No perfect solution, it seems.

          • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday November 20 2014, @09:26PM

            by frojack (1554) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 20 2014, @09:26PM (#118250) Journal

            Well the Surface tables with the click keyboard attached are pretty close to completely usable for long typing sessions. I've even researched and posted submissions on SN with my Surface pro. The click-keyboard is quite nice. The other one, not so much.

            And there are a bazillion tablet cases with built in bluetooth keyboards/trackpad on Amazon, stating around $30 for a good one.

            Admittedly this route is building a laptop piecemeal, but you still have the touch capability for what it does well, with the keyboard for those typing tasks. And even in the case, its way smaller and lighter than a laptop.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
            • (Score: 1) by monster on Friday November 21 2014, @07:53AM

              by monster (1260) on Friday November 21 2014, @07:53AM (#118410) Journal

              You are right, of course. What I was saying is that for many people the laptop form factor is the best choice, it's not like if tablets have made laptops obsolete.

              As for the Surface Pro, I must say that I have never had one in my hands, so I can't be authoritative about it, but I've heard that it's quite less slim and heavier than normal tablets, which would make it a little cumbersome in some circumstances, even after detaching the cover.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:15AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:15AM (#118026)

      I see your citation-free statistic, and I raise you an anecdote: I have a Nexus 7, and can I assure you it sees a lot of use from me. It's my constant companion, and I use it to do everything from reading books to sending email to my colleagues to doing quick fixes on broken servers via an VPN client to my office network to watching anime and hentai. Just about the only thing I don't do on it that requires a computer is write code: I still have to break out the laptop to do that. My son has an Asus Memopad, and he runs that poor thing ragged with his games, videos, and stuff. My wife has one too, and she has never turned on the laptop I gave her last January even once, despite pleas for a "real computer". Her tablet already suffices to give her access to Facebook and most of her web surfing. The only tablets that sit in a drawer collecting dust in my home are a couple of 1st gen iPads, and that's only because my son broke all of the charging cables. If we could get them charged again I'm sure they'd be used, but I'm mad at my boy for doing that and won't bother getting new cables for those for a while. The same is true of all the iPads in my sister-in-law's household. Everyone I know who has tablets uses them heavily.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @08:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @08:19AM (#118037)

      Of course it does. It proves the axiom that some people have more money than sense.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:27AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:27AM (#117937)

    Will it have to run systemd?

    • (Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:13AM

      by Marand (1081) on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:13AM (#117947) Journal

      Will it have to run systemd?

      Not just systemd [merproject.org], but PulseAudio [merproject.org] and Wayland [sailfishos.org] (on top of Android GPU drivers thanks to Hybris [wikipedia.org]). Lennart would be proud.

      Mer (which Sailfish is based off of) also uses RPM package management and seems to have a lot of standard GNU utilities, though I'd guess not much standard GUI stuff works on SailfishOS because of using Wayland instead of X11.

      Jolla's devices and OS seem interesting and I wish them luck with it. I've watched videos of the UI in action and it seemed really nice to use. If it's less restrictive than iOS and Android it could make a very compelling third player in the mobile device market.

      I say third player because that indiegogo campaign has probably already sold more SailfishOS devices than Nokia sold winphones. (That's just a joke . . . mostly)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:59AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:59AM (#117967)

        systemd, Pulse Audio and Wayland. That's the Triple Crown of awful open source projects. Throw in Firefox and GNOME 3, and you've got yourself a Grand Slam of shitty open source software.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:27AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:27AM (#117977)

        Wayland in theory looks interesting..
        I hate i have to use Pulseaudio to use steam..
        But systemD can go die in a fire for all i care.

        • (Score: 2) by jbernardo on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:42AM

          by jbernardo (300) on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:42AM (#117982)

          You don't have to use pulseaudio with steam, only one of the pulseaudio libs needs to be installed

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:00AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:00AM (#117986)

            Doesn't work, Steam will think it's installed but you get no sound.

            • (Score: 1) by Wierd0n3 on Thursday November 20 2014, @05:33AM

              by Wierd0n3 (1033) on Thursday November 20 2014, @05:33AM (#118003)

              Newest update gets you alsa audio in the client but no luck on the games, until the game devs build support for it.

              • (Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday November 20 2014, @06:36AM

                by Marand (1081) on Thursday November 20 2014, @06:36AM (#118019) Journal

                SDL supports alsa, so neither Steam nor the games actually require pulse. The problem is you might need to export an environment variable (SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa) to convince them to use it instead of blindly attempting to use pulse. You can add it to whatever .desktop entry or shell script you use to launch steam (prepending env SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa to the command line), or just add it to your global environment in some way (method to do so depends on your DE/window manager/shell/etc.)

                This has been working since the initial beta phase of the Linux Steam client and early games. The only problem I've had is microphone-related, but I've always had mic detection problems, even in Windows.

                Hopefully that helps you, the AC, and anyone else dealing with it.

      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:02PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:02PM (#118093) Journal

        though I'd guess not much standard GUI stuff works on SailfishOS because of using Wayland instead of X11.

        I am not a fan of those software packages either but you are completely wrong when reffering to wayland ability to run X applications: http://wayland.freedesktop.org/xserver.html [freedesktop.org]

        This does not mean X applications will run on sailfish, that depends on how the OS works.

        • (Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday November 20 2014, @08:09PM

          by Marand (1081) on Thursday November 20 2014, @08:09PM (#118226) Journal

          I'm aware of the x-on-wayland compatibility, but given Jolla's decision to make the GUI part proprietary, it seems safer to assume they won't provide or support it. Would be nice to be wrong but nothing I've read about Sailfish indicated otherwise, and there is already a phone out there, so if it could, someone probably would have reported it by now.

      • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Friday November 21 2014, @12:07AM

        by opinionated_science (4031) on Friday November 21 2014, @12:07AM (#118327)

        being able to run android in its own private box, is IMHO priceless.

        Linux is pretty amazing as software goes, because it is versatile.

        Android takes all that way, sticking you in a sort of "app" prison.

        I'm not saying android is not good for what it is, but its security model is absolutely dreadful.

        By default the OS should give FAKE info for EVERYTHING a user is asked for unless the user EXPLICITLY says it is ok , for THAT instance.

        In the same way a phone company doesn't needto know your birthday (if you are >18), a phone/tablet doesn't need to know your contacts,media files, network settings , gps locations etc etc, and all the other stuff that android application seem to give themselves permission to access.

        Ok rant over, its dinner time ;-)

  • (Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:12AM

    by Lagg (105) on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:12AM (#117946) Homepage Journal

    Don't get me wrong I'm extremely happy that people are showing interest in Sailfish but I was hoping this hinted device would actually be a GSM phone. I don't need a tablet and what I really wanted to do is replace my N1 with a Jolla phone running Sailfish because I'm getting extremely tired of Android for various reasons and I can barely get cyanogenmod stable to run decently on the N1 because of how quickly Google abandons things including less-than-new hardware specs. I guess on some level I can see why they did a tablet. Making a phone would basically give the lemming jackasses in the media a free ticket to attack every single bug and say things like "How will this affect the Jolla Phone's Market(TM) Share(TM)" and act as if though it was going head first into a fight with Apple and Google. Don't look at me like that. You know they would.

    --
    http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:34AM

      by Marand (1081) on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:34AM (#117954) Journal

      Normally I'm more intrigued by interesting new tablets, especially ones with active pens like the galaxy note or the surface pro, but in Jolla's case, I'd really rather see the Jolla phone sold in the US. It seems really nice to use, and with a phone I don't care too much if there aren't a lot of apps as long as it has email, phone, SMS, and the browser doesn't suck. It's nice if they can do more, but most phones are just too small to be comfortable for me to use for much, especially doing input-heavy things.

      With a tablet, I have higher expectations for what I should be able to do, so I'd be more concerned about this one's suitability than I would with a phone. Still looks interesting, though.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:15AM

    by frojack (1554) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:15AM (#117949) Journal

    The specs seem decent enough for the price, processor is equivelent to the surface pro (v1) which my day job provided. That machine is pretty fast.
    I'll probably give it a try, since it has a way to run android apps as well as it's own apps.

    It will be my third tablet, (or 4th if you count the one I gave to my kid after I upgraded).
    If I don't like it I can always find someone who might want one.

    Campaign has already reached $846,051.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:51AM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:51AM (#117963)

      They're okay. They compare the resolution to an iPad mini 3, but even the 2013 Nexus 7 has a higher DPI. It's a decent tablet for a decent price, but it's pretty bare-bones hardware these days. Love the expandable memory though.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:01AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:01AM (#117970)

        It's a decent tablet, for 2011. Too bad it's almost 2015 now.

  • (Score: 2) by morgauxo on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:29AM

    by morgauxo (2082) on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:29AM (#117978)

    I wonder how much they saved by not including HDMI. I suppose not having that is more forgiveable on a tablet than it would have been on a phone. At least the built in screen is bigger anyway. Still... I would have been more interested if it had HDMI out. I do mean a separate HDMI slot. MHL's inability to do USB host and HDMI out at the same time is bullshit!

    I'm one of those few people who use a lapdock. I like that kind of all in one capability.

    • (Score: 1) by mj on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:48AM

      by mj (399) on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:48AM (#118031)

      what kind of lapdock setup do you have?

      --
      The nihilists have such good imaginations.
      • (Score: 2) by morgauxo on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:34PM

        by morgauxo (2082) on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:34PM (#121851)

        Droid Bionic plus the lapdock that was designed for it.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:59PM

      by frojack (1554) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:59PM (#118224) Journal

      I wonder how much they saved by not including HDMI.

      Meh. Two of my tablets have some form of that, and other than hooking it up ONCE just to prove it worked, I never use it, and neither does anyone I know. Who wants a tethered tablet?

      $35 gets you a Chromecast. $4 more gets you a Fire TV Stick. Other all-wifi solutions are abundant. It would not make any sense at all to raise the price of this device by the $15 bucks it would take to add HDMI to all them for the 7 people in the world that might occasionally use it.

      Its got Bluetooth 4, a good WIFI chipset. That's all you need in a tablet.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by timbim on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:43AM

    by timbim (907) on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:43AM (#117996)

    In light of NSA spying, wouldn't It be time to support free software? Sailfish OS uses proprietary software. Fuck all the bullshit and let's move on.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:01PM

    by PizzaRollPlinkett (4512) on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:01PM (#118074)

    So this thing is half the price of a tablet that actually runs existing apps that people want? Have we finally discovered the value that an app ecosystem adds to commodity hardware?

    If this thing had run even stock Android, it might have had a chance. I don't know what Sailfish is, and I don't really care, because it's just the next OS that goes into the same black hole as FireFox OS and all the others. Supporting iOS and Android is so difficult for developers that the "rule of three" hasn't kicked in for the mobile world. Even Microsoft can't get developer traction, because a third mobile OS with a completely different set of APIs and frameworks to do the same thing iOS and Android already do is just too much for developers to handle. The opportunity cost is too high. As a developer, I could learn the next iffy also-ran OS, or I could build on what I already have that people already use for iOS and Android. Which am I going to do? The fact that iOS and Android have had no third competitor complete the "rule of three" is the answer to that question.

    --
    (E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
    • (Score: 1) by evk on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:44PM

      by evk (597) on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:44PM (#118101)

      A lot of what you say is true, but a new android tablet from a small company wouldn't have been very exciting. Nokia presented their version yesterday and no one really cared.

      Sailfish OS may be more or less unknown on the general market. But anyone who's looking for a something a little more open and useable on the phone will know about it. It's far from perfect, but to me it's much more interesting than tizen/ubuntu/firefox. I don't think that it'll ever get as large a user base as ios/android, but it doesn't need to.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Foobar Bazbot on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:20PM

      by Foobar Bazbot (37) on Thursday November 20 2014, @03:20PM (#118127) Journal

      I don't know what Sailfish is

      Yeah, that really shows in the rest of your comment. Your assumptions about Sailfish, while quite reasonable, are incorrect.

      Sailfish is the OS/2 of the mobile world -- it runs Android apps, thus containing the seeds of temporary success (because it can leech off an existing ecosystem while it builds its own) and long-term failure (because however popular it may be, developers will make an Android app and (at best) also test it under Sailfish, rather than make two separate apps or only a Sailfish app).

      So while I can't be optimistic about Sailfish's long term prospects, it's definitely not facing the huge barrier you assume it is.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @08:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @08:15PM (#118230)

        Sailfish is the OS/2 of the mobile world

        Oh then not so interesting. There will be no leeching and building its own app structure. I as a developer would target android. I then get both platforms 'for free' development wise.

        Look I really liked OS/2 and ran it for about 2 years but it was easily clear from the literature of the time and other devs. They targeted either DOS or WIN3.x. Why? Because they then could run on OS/2 anyway and they were 'done'. Maybe a bit of testing on OS/2 to make sure it worked. But that was hit or miss. If it didnt work they could just point at IBM and say 'they can fix it'. There were a few devs that 'threw a bone' and would compile for both. The primary target was DOS or WIN3.x.

        Which is your point. Eventually people get tired of the trick of running both. Then just pick the platform that runs their apps.

        it's definitely not facing the huge barrier you assume it is
        You are sort of right on this. As frankly most 'apps' on both iOS and Android are crap. Billions of apps that do very little and a poor interface. So it could have a shot.