Many fans of the MeeGo operating system felt their hope slip away just days ago when important MeeGo team members left Nokia only hours of a new Nokia N9 update. This put the fate of the entire platform in a could of doubt, but thankfully the sunlight seems to be coming through.
Recently-founded Finnish startup, Jolla — which includes important members of the N9 team and veterans of the unofficial MeeGo community — confirmed that it’s planning to push the MeeGo platform even further, and also plans to build a smartphone powered by the platform, a “N10” phone that’s been in the works since late 2011 and should be ready to show later this year.
However, it’s not without its small dilemmas. Because Jolla’s MeeGo is based on Mer Project — a partly HTML5-powered project — the new MeeGo will include a “brand new UI” to go with the new hardware. Still, that and the absence of Nokia’s branding may be a small prices to pay for long-time fans of the platform.
MeeGo Smartphones and Operating System Find a New Life in Jolla Ltd.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jolla Ltd. is an independent Finland based smartphone product company which continues the excellent work that Nokia started with MeeGo. The Jolla team is formed by directors and core professionals from Nokia’s MeeGo N9 organisation, together with some of the best minds working on MeeGo in the communities.
Jussi Hurmola, CEO Jolla Ltd.: “Nokia created something wonderful – the world’s best smartphone product. It deserves to be continued, and we will do that together with all the bright and gifted people contributing to the MeeGo success story.”
Jolla Ltd. will design, develop and sell new MeeGo based smartphones. Together with international private investors and partners, a new smartphone using this MeeGo based OS will be revealed later this year.
Jolla Ltd. has been developing a new smartphone product and the OS since the end of 2011. The OS has evolved from MeeGo OS using Mer Core and Qt with Jolla technology including its own brand new UI.
The Jolla team consists of a substantial number of MeeGo’s core engineers and directors, and is aggressively hiring the top MeeGo and Linux talent to contribute to the next generation smartphone production. Company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland and has an R&D office in Tampere, Finland.
Sincerely,
Jolla Ltd.
Dr. Antti Saarnio – Chairman & Finance
Mr. Jussi Hurmola – CEO
Mr. Sami Pienimäki – VP, Sales & Business Development
Mr. Stefano Mosconi – CIO
Mr. Marc Dillon – COO