
Finnish MeeGo Startup Jolla Reveals First Phone With Customisable Shells - Tsiolkovsky
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/20/finnish-meego-startup-jolla-reveals-first-phone-hardware-with-customisable-shells-e399-price-tag-coming-at-years-end/
======
dreen
I was kind of hoping the cover would slide to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, it was
one of the main reasons I got the N900 which I use to this day. Its getting
pretty dated so it will probably be either Jolla or a FFOS phone, which is
looking pretty good too.

In fact, if there is anything low-endish on FFOS with a QWERTY ill probably
just get that.

Edit: I should probably say I'm also using a low-end Samsung with Android, and
its a pretty shitty experience, although only half of that is due to Android
OS (signing me out in weird moments, things unremovable from notifications,
poor task management etc), granted Im probably stuck on some old version.

~~~
ido
I've used firefox-os (the developer release phone) & I honestly don't see any
significant improvement over ios or android.

It mostly felt like a much slower version of android tbh.

I would wager that your shitty experience is due to under-powered phone with
old 2.x os. A high end device with up do date 4.x would be much more
pleasurable to use.

~~~
phillc73
I have a Samsung GT-S5830i. I don't have a lot of additional apps installed -
maybe two games and a Twitter profile manager. It, generally, feels sluggish
when switching between applications, such as messaging to web browsing.

My new Geeksphone Keon with FirefoxOS feels much more responsive than the
Samsung with Android. And the Firefox browser works much better on the Keon!

Unfortunately, a couple of functionality things with the Keon prevent me from
migrating across - as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from
Facebook or a SIM card. Also email only supports some webmail options (e.g.
Gmail) and IMAP, no POP3 or Exchange server support. I'm not complaining
though, as I know it's a developer release. I'm just hopeful someone with
better skills than me will enhance the relevant applications.

With respect to this Jolla article, I'm unimpressed the phone is priced so
high. My initially gut feel when I saw the article was "damn, I just got this
FirefoxOS phone." After reading that the price point for Jolla is EUR399, I'm
pretty happy with my EUR125 Keon purchase.

~~~
shared4you
> as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM
> card

Did you update FxOS after you bought the phone? There is a new "Importer" app
which sync'ed contacts from Google/Gmail. Works well.

~~~
phillc73
Thanks, and I haven't looked at contacts again since the update. I appreciate
you pointing this out to me. I will have another look at contacts this
evening.

------
networked
>Jolla’s handset will cost €399 ($513) and is slated to ship at the end of the
year.

I find Sailfish an interesting product due to its technological heritage but
that is rather a lot. I wonder what their marketing strategy is for this
device.

From a developer's perspective you can't help but compare that price to how
much it would cost to get a Firefox OS development unit. FxOS also promises
you access to a larger, if less affluent, audience. On the other hand, a
higher price might prevent the kind of shortages we are currently seeing with
Geeksphone Keon and Peak.

~~~
blub
If you're looking to sell apps, both FF and Jolla are a bad bet I believe. If
you're looking for a mobile computer like the N900 (or to a lesser extent the
N9) was, then I don't think FF really qualifies...

~~~
L4mppu
"The device is powered by Jolla’s Sailfish OS but can also run Android apps,
giving it something of a leg up."

Did you even read the article.

------
Zigurd
This will be interesting to see.

Of all the new entrants with new mobile OSs, Jolla has the most experienced
crew. They also chose Qt as an app runtime, so they do not rely on Web apps to
become mature and efficient on mobile hardware.

Since it does not rely on anything heavy-weight, the Sailfish OS should scale
down to budget smartphone hardware at least as well as Android.

The also have a lot of drive to prove Nokia wrong, much the same way Andy
Rubin was driven to succeed after Danger failed to make headway with OEMs and
carriers. There is a lot to be said for the power of smart pissed-off people.

------
dools
God I wish one of these companies would release a decent candy bar qwerty. Am
I really the only one??

~~~
blub
What about Blackberry Q10, or the likely more affordable Q5?

------
zokier
I sure hope that the back-cover thingy is more than just splash of color.
Well, maybe they are trying to score some nostalgia points from old 5110/3310
users :)

~~~
Geee
There's some sort of NFC detection of the current cover and apparently you can
hack some settings based on which cover you're currently using. See
<http://www.jolla.com> and scroll down.

~~~
easytiger
that is a painfully bad gimmick.

~~~
mst
That depends on how much it affects the display - if snapping a cover on and
off is easy, I could see myself using a blue and an orange one as a sort of
hardware f.lux switch.

------
Systemic33
After reading i felt like their main selling point was the customisable
shells, which indeed is a nice feature, but nothing that would make people
switch in my opinion.

Is this a special video just focused on the shell or is this really what their
marketing wants to display?

------
zokier
So the main launch present is over now. They didn't tell anything new about
anything. I hope the press can get something out of the Jolla guys, I felt bit
disappointed. Not about the device (pretty much impossible to be disappointed
about something I know nothing about), but about the event.

~~~
nvrmor
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno>

------
msh
The specs sound ok for the price, but then it will be available by end of
year... It sounds like too weaks specs for the price compared to what you will
be able to get at that time.

------
scrumper
First smartphone maybe, but not first phone. It's appropriate that a team of
ex-Nokia people have recycled the idea of Xpress-On covers.

------
Eeko
What kind of connector in the Other Half? If it can be used for a battery
extension and/or qwerty, count me in!

------
candl
hands-on demo of the device: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno>

------
fakeer
Looks very good. Was the back cover added just for show to this sleek phone or
it actually covers sth bulged?

~~~
andor
It covers the removable battery. I don't like the sandwich look, it's a design
trick to make the phone appear thinner. The front half by itself isn't bad,
with clean lines and no silly "design elements" that don't add to usability.

