Submitted by “Jolla has signed a Sales and Distribution agreement with D.Phone Group, the largest mobile phones retail chain in China. Together the companies have a shared target to reach significant sales volumes in China’s 150 million smartphone market. The agreement is such that D.Phone will start sales and distribution of Jolla smartphones in China, utilising D.Phone’s vast network of over 2000 retail stores to reach the Chinese consumers.” Wow.
Here is a recent interview with Jussi Hurmola:
http://www.ossimantylahti.com/2012/07/interview-of-jussi-hurmola-jo…
“D.Phone Group, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicorn”
“For example I can’t tell you anything about possible partnership with Intel.”
haha. Rumours are that when Elop read that he throwed a bunch of N9 against the wall next to him crying “that was not the deal, Ballmer!”
Edited 2012-07-17 06:59 UTC
I’d like to introduce you to the John Galt line.
this somehow validates T.Ahonen claims about Nokia having deals ready to push Meego bit time in China.
That China Mobile was a MeeGo partner[1] is not a claim. Just google.
[1] The by far biggest carrier on earth. When Nokia switched to Lumia they denied Lumia to enter there market, forced Nokia to produce a Lumia running Symbian rather then WP and I would not wonder if they actively support JollaMobile. LG, Intel and Samsung are other candidates which may have an interest to support Jolla. Tizen and MeeGo are sisters, Jolla already announced support for HTML5 apps and Tizen 1.0 ships Qt.
Edited 2012-07-17 13:07 UTC
That people are rather sick of the two main smart phone operating systems (iOS and Android) for whatever reason and are really excited about a (non-Microsoft) newcomer?
Though to quote Tim Minear “Where were you when we needed you?” (this is about Firefly fans on their 10th anniversary reunion, where about 10,000 fans showed up).
And much like the beloved Firefly, there were the hardcore people behind MeeGo and wanted it badly to succeed, then the rest… well we know the rest.
But with Jolla bouncing up, they are all over the media sites, which is fantastic!
“People”? “People” are seemingly starting to ignore Bada. They ignored WebOS (also quite recently, when it was still pushed by HP). Even worse in tablet space… (and there specifically, the uptake of Blackberry tablet OS doesn’t bode too well for the new mobile BB OS)
So it might be not really about “people” – probably more the usual, some companies desiring a larger slice of the cake for themselves, those few thinking they can do it by differentiating in that particular way …we’ll see (but the history of similar efforts doesn’t bode too well)
Edited 2012-07-25 00:03 UTC
I’d rather they use Tizen over Meego.
You can, already. Buy a Samsung Wave.
Why? What’s so exciting about Tizen? It’s just HTML5, like Boot to Gecko or whatever it’s called these days. I’d rather have Mozilla’s phone OS, as it’s proper open sauce.
Good luck Jolla.
Hope for Nokia style hardware with meego
.
Ok, now I am a little realistic and belive that the first products will be of less quality (China), but I really hope that in two years we will see them again in Europe with the quality that Nokia gave us.
Maybe a takeover by Nokia as there contingency plan?
iPhone and Lumia (unlike the N9) are done in China. Samsung Galaxy S3 probably too.
Have a look at my link above. The plan is to show the device(s?) end of this year and deliver it/them latest in 2013Q1 world wide what includes Europe.
The D.Phone deal shows that they have a working prototype which convinced D.Phone to sign that deal (a good sign of both, quality and progress).
Currently it looks as Nokia will not make it into 2013Q1 if they keep course, burn cash at high speed and cannot deliver anything till Lumia WP8 is ready what is to long, to little, to late.
Nokia has no say in JollaMobile else Elop would have killed them off already since they WILL sell better then Lumia (not so different to selll more then 300k with D.Phone on your side 🙂 ).
Edited 2012-07-17 13:32 UTC
iPhone and Lumia (unlike the N9) are done in China. Samsung Galaxy S3 probably too.
Yes, but this is about Chinese market
from: http://www.intomobile.com/2012/07/11/interview-jussi-hurmola-ceo-jo…
In this interview he also said that he did cooperate with Nokia in setting up the company. It did say that Nokia had to cooperate, because of the great number of layoffs.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/363455/20120716/jolla-mobile-d-ph…
“The company also suggested it would strive to create similar partnerships in other countries to give it a smooth entry into markets around the world.”
China just happens to be the first that signed the deal. I am sure we will see similar deals for europe and maybe even US (Hello AT&T, did you had bad experiences with Lumia sales in US and like to try something different with potential? Hello, T-Online, you aborted Lumia-sales but still have interest in bringing something new, fresh and lucrative to your customers?)
The chinese market is important. If you suceed there then you already reached a significant market share. Jolla is an europe company run by people who happen to have a long track-record in world-wide focus. It just makes absolute sense to focus on asia first, europe second, south america theird and US forth. Lets look if Jolla announces partnerships in that order 🙂
…missing targets, big delays, largely unfulfilled promises; also. Let’s not forget about those little details.
But what really happens throughout the world (sadly – but that’s the way it is): mostly the success and visibility in the US props up product lines elsewhere. You would notice something so basic if you cared at all about accuracy, instead of just shouting your party line and professing your misled beliefs (like the one where you vehemently claimed Nokia can’t possibly have any expansive activities in PRC, “never ever” http://www.osnews.com/permalink?525390 …while they have now second major research centre there)
PS. Oh, and Asia is not some promised land of innovation, like you allude in a nearby post. Sure, the western patent system became a bit of a mess …but, ultimately, Asia also has huge costs of doing business, just of a different kind (high levels of corruption, that’s not “open and straith forward”; and going too far the other direction, with copying to the point of plagiarism)
Edited 2012-07-25 00:11 UTC
Rather other way around. Jolla will take over Nokia when Nokia will be below the floor with their losses.
Its just that there is not much left that is worth to be taken over if you happen to be not interest into patent-trolling but products. Nokia is now down to a bing-reseller and they will end where all the others that walked down that path ended. To bad they did not had a look at navteq before walking that route.
There’s always a brand…
…and the patents, even if you are not interested in patents trolling and just want to defend yourself.
and you can damage a brand. Bulding trust and with it the brand takes long, losing that trust goes fast.
The Symbian-abort, the MeeGo-kill, the Lumia-push and upgrade disaster and Elop is not done yet. He has plenty time left to continue damage the brand, push customers away and lose market share.
The times where Nokia was a synonym for quality are gone once Elop finished managing Nokias downfall. Those who take over the brand will be forced to reach customers out there and message that something changed, that Nokia is back to quality. Maybe a Sony Ericsson like branding? Jolla Nokia?
Edited 2012-07-18 09:16 UTC
I’m looking forward to seeing what this brings.
I actually quite liked the look of Meego (and that is saying something, as I hate Nokia and their fumbled Maemo handling, as documented here previously)… but you can’t buy one for anything less than stupid money here. £500+ for a 64GB model is insane. The 16GB model is pretty pricey too – generally £100 more than a Lumia 800 now. If I could get it on contract, I probably would. No one in the UK stocks it on contract, in fact – it was never even released here. Given the platform is now dead, I’m not going to pay a premium for a phone with absolutely no future. Shame, because I really would have otherwise.
Edited 2012-07-17 12:10 UTC
That’s * just * huge !
If Jolla can do it, and oversale Nokia Lumia in China,
I can’t imagine what this can mean for Nokia, Finland and Microsoft.
Microsoft is a sneaky foe. They will try to attack at some point, for sure.
Why this word popped immediately in my mind: patents ? 😉
Then starting in China is a good move for them.
I wonder if this is a key part of the strategy. Hurmola mentions a couple of times that the company needs to be big to attract the investors. I think the company also needs to be big to fight patent battles. It’s inevitable that patent grenades will get thrown and to survive they’ll need a lot of money to cover legal fees and possible loss of income due to temporary product bans.
By first growing their business in China, they can then move into the western markets when they’re strong enough to deal with whatever gets thrown at them.
Edited 2012-07-17 21:55 UTC
You see, instead of working on technology, company needs to spend resources on fighting patent battles and shaking off patent racketeers. Clear demonstration of how rotten the whole patent system is.
More worse it means companies may in the future have more reasons to not deliver, manufacter and R&D in western markets. The whole process to invent, produce and market products becomes horrible unprofitable and dangerous (as in hard to calculate) making our western markets very unacctractive compared to the large, open and straith forward asian markets.
Our current system forces that. Horrible for us customers, employees, investors and inventers. We should get familar with the idea to turn ourselfs into a 4th world tech region. We may need to start teaching and learning chinese in our schools fast to offer for our children a way to participate and shape up there future where the future is: in asia.
Jolla is Finnish as well.
I bet they’re keeping enough cash aside so if Meego/jolla does better than Lumia, they’ll buy Jolla. If Jolla flops, it’ll have no effect on Nokia.