Jolla’s MeeGo-derived Sailfish mobile operating system is all set to exit its beta stage in March, where the Finnish company is ready to finally unleash Sailfish to the world. At its booth at MWC 2014, the company not only showed off its Jolla smartphone, it also showcased several Android devices running on Sailfish OS – a result of enterprising developers within the company. After all, Jolla’s next step is to release a custom launcher for Android, so it’s probably all in the name of research. CEO and co-founder Marc Dillon was an ever-present figure at the booth, and was ever ready to give a demo on the basic features of Sailfish.
Sailfish OS is an alternative mobile platform developed by Jolla, who are mostly made up of ex-Nokia staff who were relieved of their duties in 2011 when Nokia made a strategy shift to adopt Windows Phone exclusively, abandoning its in-house MeeGo platform. Within the span of a year, Jolla had developed Sailfish, a Linux-based mobile operating system with true multitasking at its core.
In May 2013, the company also announced its first smartphone running on Sailfish, also called Jolla, before officially being available later in November. During that timeframe, the 100-staff company released three major software updates for Sailfish, which was still in beta stage. The fourth, which will roll out in early March, will see Jolla removing the beta tag on Sailfish, making it ready for commercial release.
Want to know more about the various alternative mobile operating systems? Read more about Ubuntu Phone OS and other emerging platforms here.
