Jolla showed Sailfish 3, but also its feature phone version that runs Android apps
Jolla, a Finnish startup company created by ex-Nokia people, also had an event organized at MWC2018 where they have been talking about their latest software products. Mostly they were talking about their main product Sailfish OS, and what they are offering is quite interesting. Maybe this news will be received best among old Nokia fans and aficionados since they know what Nokia N9 was and meant to the smartphone industry back then.
So, Jolla introduced Sailfish 3, the latest edition that will be able to run on feature phones too. This is interesting, since it can run not only available native Sailfish apps, but also selected Android apps. Jolla also said this feature phone version of Sailfish will be able to run one of the most important Android apps of today, WhatsApp.
And here things are becoming exciting, because having that app on a feature phone could be ideal for many people that are tired of their large screen and battery consuming smartphones. I can imagine myself using yellow Nokia 8110 that is able to use WhatsApp, and I believe I’m not the only one there. This feature phone has 4G and 2 MP camera, practically ideal for simple exchange of text and graphic/visual information over WhatsApp. Don’t forget that the battery life would span probably more than one day, which is standard for smartphones of today.
Jolla displayed some feature phones, even one that looks like 3310, that runs Sailfish. At the event, they mentioned that the UI is also adjusted to the phones without touch screens but seems that that UI didn’t keep some swipe like controls that made Sailfish, and MeeGo before, popular.
What I can also imagine is future Nokia feature phones, especially those revival phones running Sailfish OS. This combo would be great for many reasons, but mostly because two ex Nokia products could be merged again ?.
Anyway, I think Jolla is going in a good direction and keep my finger crossed to push Sailfish OS as a third choice.
