Jolla smartphone can run Android apps and with some smart trick can access the Google Play directly, that much is known to all of us. But if Jolla CEO’s latest interview is any indication, then they are planning to do much more radical things in future. According to Jolla CEO Tomi Pienimäki, they are planning to bring Sailfish OS as free upgrade installation for Android devices in China. They will let Chinese websites which distribute free “software” to Android users offer Sailfish OS as well.
”That is the plan. We are on device business and OS business. It is fairly easy to install the OS on Android devices”, Pienimäki says.
”There is no such culture in these parts of the world [Finland], but there are people that are installing new operating systems on their devices. In China it is mainstream. About half of the smartphone buyers are upgrading their older or cheaper devices with a better version of Android.”
“For us it is a possibility to distribute our operating system especially in China. There are websites that already distribute [OS] software and the Chinese customers are doing it so we don’t have to teach them. We just have to get Sailfish to those websites – and to make sure that Sailfish will run on different kind of Android devices.”
Even if half of Chinese smartphone users upgrade their OS as mentioned by Jolla CEO, still how will Jolla make money if they offer Sailfish for free. Answer is with help of other services built on top of Sailfish OS.
”We won’t get money by selling the OS. It has to be something else on top of that. It can be applications, services or advertising. Whatever is their revenue model, we should be able to get a slice of that.”
This indeed looks like an out of the box solution but too early to visualize it taking shape. Making Android switchers try Jolla may not be east task after all. May be Jolla also try to get vendors who can offer original hardware running on Sailfish OS on their side.
Thanks Krishna for the Tip. Cheers!!
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