Intex and Jolla Announce Partnership First Sailfish OS 2.0 Powered Mobile Still a Few Months Away...

We got excited at the prospect of Intex launching the first SailfishOS 2.0 powered smartphone at MWC Shanghai but Jolla and Intex just gave us abig tease instead.At the scheduled press event on Thursday the two companiesannounced that the first Sailfish OS 2.0 powered smartphone will indeed bemanufactured by Intex but they arent ready to unveil it just yet.  Intexclarified that the smartphone on display at MWC Shanghai (pictured above) is areference design and not the device that will eventually ship as suggested by a company representative on Wednesday.Intex which has become the first company in the world to license Sailfish OS2.0 with Thursdays announcement expects to release the first smartphone basedon the revamped platform in November this year. SanjayKalirona Head Mobile Business Intex Technologies said We are veryexcited to be the worlds first licensing partner for Sailfish OS and lookforward to utilising the great user experience of the next generation SailfishOS 2.0 in our products. Together with the Sailfish India ecosystem partners webelieve that we can provide an exciting new choice for smartphone lovers inIndia and later globally as well. Jolla onits part unveiled a new reference design platform that Intex and it hopesother partners will build upon.

 The design is based on Qualcomm 200 600 and800 Snapdragon chips to span across various price points and will support 4GLTE. AnttiSaarnio Executive Chairman of Jolla said In our BRICS country strategywe have been proceeding fastest in India which is one the most importantmarkets in the future of mobile. We have seen a lot of interest among Indianmobile device manufacturers digital media houses and operators and they areall very keen to work with an alternative to the currently dominating mobileoperating systems. Jolla hadunveiled Sailfish OS 2.0 at MWC in Barcelona earlier this year. The updated OSbrings an improved UI and new software integration capabilities for partners.Swiping left or right from the multitasking view in Sailfish OS 2.0 brings uppartner spaces which the company uses to monetise its OS. Partners Snapdeal and Times Internet are already on board for the India market can usethese spaces to promote their content with the manufacturer (like Intex) andJolla potentially getting a slice of this revenue. The real estate is pretty premiumconsidering its just a swipe away from a frequently accessed screen but itwill be interesting to see if people actually swipe into these screens or learnto tune them out if they start to look too much like advertisements.