SailfishOS, open source, collaboration: 17-Dec @ 14:30 UTC

Saarnio: "Ok, Thank you. And thanks for inviting me here. I have quite good news, some of those I can share today, but as we need to inform media and community and customers on equal bases, most of the information will come tomorrow. We are just preparing a blog update to be sent out tomorrow, where most of the new information will be. So here are the news :)"

Saarnio: "We have received financing to continue Sailfish OS development from our investors. THIS means that reports about Jolla's death are greatly exaggerated :)"

Saarnio: "Its early to share details about the financing yet, and might be that we can't share all because of confidentiality matter. But we will share what we can. This financing troubles have of course impacted the company and we need to repair the ship, but most important thing is that Sailfish OS work will continue"

"About tablets then. We only got the financing confirmed yesterday, and we are now busy analysing different alternatives what to do with TabletGate. We will have a board meeting after Christmas which is to decide between alternatives."

Antti Saarnio: "Options are: refunding or to continue with tablets, but then even more delays are to be expected. It's a tough call."

Antti Saarnio: "Intex project will continue, we have confirmed that yesterday and there will be new Sailfish phone coming."

Antti Saarnio: "The financing is solid, but we are still very tight. Important is that big partners are starting to support us in China, India and Russia"

Antti Saarnio: "yes, nothing to do with Jolla, but it seems that our production partner from China started selling some tables which were already produced and in their stock. We are discussing with them that they would stop sales immediately"

Antti Saarnio tweets after the meeting: The Force Awakens

"The reports about Jolla's death have been greatly exaggerated"

Antti Saarnio: "So final words: Force awakens :) "

Antti Saarnio: "Will come back to Jolla Adventures on other time, ok "

Antti Saarnio: "Thank you all for trusting and supporting us! "



Press release

Antti Saarnio comments: "A very important part in a start-up’s journey is going through death valleys. Most start-ups need great survival skills and determination and innovative solutions to succeed in the long run. Jolla has now successfully completed its investment round and is ready to continue to provide a true mobile OS alternative to the world. This latest death valley was the most difficult one but proved that highly motivated teams can win even when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges."

"The mobile OS landscape is currently going through a very interesting phase. While many OS projects are fading, the need for alternative OS’s is strong. Without personal data privacy and security, it is hard to see that people, companies and governments could trust all their business, financial and personal information on mobile. We stand firm in the belief that the world needs an alternative mobile OS," Saarnio continues.

Juhani Lassila adds that "The agreed investment is part of a larger deal which is still under discussion. This funding secures the very near future for the company's operations."

A change in model

"So far Jolla as a start-up has been solely carrying the high investment cost of the Sailfish operating system. It has been very challenging to finance this operation. We are now moving into a model where our partners in the BRICS countries, especially in Russia, India and China, will invest in the R&D of local market operations, while Jolla will focus more on the development of the core of Sailfish OS, producing Sailfish software releases, and supporting its licensees & app developers. Further licensing deals will be announced soon," Antti Saarnio continues.

Jolla Tablet campaign

According to Lassila, "This is a business decision, based on a number of different variables, and how the decisions affect the future Jolla."

"There will be more concrete measures by the end of the year," adds Lassila

"Now that the immediate financing challenge is resolved we will put our attention to the tablet project and develop a plan for dealing with it. All of your cases will be dealt with as soon as we have the plan ready to be implemented. So hang in there, the answers are coming.", adds Antti Saarnio on the Jolla blog.

Collaboration with the community

Lassila: "Very positive experience, and certainly Antti (and I) will participate again!"

Lassila: "Absolutely. Obviously can't promise particiption in all the meetings, but yes for those whenever there's important stuff to tell you."

Lassila: "Well, we've tried to be open all the time, whenever it may not always seem like that from the community point of view. However, we strive to that continuously."

Lassila: "The update is coming in the beginning of next week, so you'll know by then. There's been quite a bunch of bugfixing, so it should bring more stability."

Update, January 11, 2016: Juhani Lassila shared us later that a required security fix has delayed the next release. Early Access version should be released by January 15th, 2016.

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