Wild Speculation #4: Nokia + Jolla “Dream” Partnership ?

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We have long speculated on this blog that Nokia might one day team up with Jolla to bring Sailfish OS to some nice Nokia hardware, a marriage which invokes a lot of passion from many Nokia/Jolla fans alike.

The well-versed story goes that a large section of Jolla’s crew hailed from Nokia and Jolla itself was initially started with funding from the Nokia bridge program which gave each co-founder a pay out in order to start a new business.

This would, to many fans be a great partnership given the history:

  1. Nokia (with some of the now Jolla team) make phones like the N900 and N9

  2. Team working on Maemo/Meego are made redundant due to Nokia’s new direction with Microsoft

  3. Five of Jolla’s co-founders present a business plan to Nokia who fund them via the Nokia bridge program

  4. Jolla is born!

  5. Jolla works with Infinity on new Jolla phone, a team who once helped Nokia release their own hardware

  6. Jolla team up with Nokia for Native HERE maps on Sailfish OS

  7. Nokia is sold to Microsoft but Nokia “brand” is to be licensed to other companies as long as hardware is in keeping with general brand image

  8. Jolla announce something “BIG” to be revealed at SLUSH 2014 Wednesday 19th November

  9. Nokia announce “We’re up to something” to be revealed at SLUSH 2014 Tuesday 18th November

So could this be the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the moment Jolla and Nokia finally declare their undying love for one another, to finally live happily ever after in the tech history books ?

Sorry to burst bubbles here people but I’m a little bit sceptical by now… there just seem to be too many inconsistencies for something (eg. hardware) to be announced this week as a partnership device.

For a start Nokia are unable to manufacture another smartphone until 2016 under their sales agreement with Microsoft (and appear to have no intention of doing so in the future), but that wouldn’t stop Jolla from licensing the Nokia “brand” to make a Sailfish loaded Nokia branded device.   This seems unlikely given that they already have the “Jolla” brand which has been serving them well until now.  Of course there would be nothing to stop another hardware manufacturer (eg. Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo etc) from licensing the Nokia branding and partnering with Jolla to bring Sailfish to the branded hardware…. an all seemingly Finnish affair, manufactured by a 3rd party big shot?

Furthermore, judging by the leaked images, there is nothing to suggest that the images are connected in any way.  Jolla’s “BIG” image clearly looks like some kind of smartphone or tablet whereas Nokia’s “box” image looks more like some kind of TV box or perhaps some other type of peripheral/wearable?

The fact that Nokia will be revealing their new “box” a day earlier than Jolla’s announcement would make it very unlikely the two are directly connected.

Either way, this is all very exciting news and SLUSH 2014 is certainly panning out to be a “BIG” one this year. 

I’m not writing off another new Jolla/Nokia connection in some way though in future of course (or even at Slush) and with Nokia promising an “exciting week ahead” (note: whole week not just one day) we may see some other side announcements relating to Jolla as the week progresses.

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JollaTides

Chief Editor at JollaTides
Here to spread word about Jolla and Sailfish OS.
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Category : Blog, Developers, Discussion, Event, Jolla, Lauta, Maemo, MeeGo, N9, N900, Nokia, Sailfish, SLUSH 2014
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