Jolla co-founder Marc Dillon this week announced on stage at the Slush conference that the first Jolla Sailfish OS smartphone will go on sale on November 27 in Helsinki, Finland. It will be exclusively carried by local carrier DNA. “Being a Finnish operator, it has been very important to DNA to be able to support a Finnish success story, one in which we see great potential” DNA Business Director Cedric Kamtsan said in a statement.
"The world's first #Jolla phone will be sold on Nov 27 in Helsinki" by @DNA_fi
— Jolla (@JollaHQ) November 14, 2013
The launch appears to be more symbolic than anything else though. DNA is opening up a single pop-up store on Narinkkatori in central Helsinki for a single evening. Only 450 smartphones will be available with many of these reserved fir customers who pre-ordered it. More Jolla phones are expected to land in DNA retail stores in early December.
Jolla Sailfish smartphone specifications:
- Processor: 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon
- Operating system: Sailfish OS
- Cellular connectivity: LTE/HSPA/GSM
- Display: 4.5-inch qHD (540×960) Jolla Estrade
- RAM: 1GB
- Internal storage: 16GB
- External storage: microSD cards
- Rear-facing camera: 8MP AF with LED flash
- Front-facing camera: 2MP
- Battery: 2,100mAh
- Dimensions: 131 × 68 × 9.9 millimeters
- Weight: 141 grams
- Other: Expandability with changeable The Other Half smartcovers
With Sailfish being compatible with Android apps, Jolla smartphone users will have access to some 85,000 Android apps through the Russian Yandex.Store app store. These include popular Android apps like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Skype and Angry Birds among others.
Jolla is planning to widen availability to other parts of Europe later on but has not announced specific details yet. It remains to be seen if the Jolla smartphone will make its way to North America.
The Jolla Sailfish smartphone will sell for €399 (about CA$560).