While we wait for a certain Linux-based mobile OS to arrive on phones before we start thinking about tablets, other entrants are upping their game.
Mozilla’s Firefox OS is readying its own tablet face after shipping on a crazy number of handsets around the world and now Jolla, the team behind the Android-compatible Sailfish OS, is also throwing its hat tail fin into the ring.
In just a few hours Jolla reached its $380,000 target.
Like the Ubuntu Edge campaign that spectacularly failed/spectacularly smashed funding records, Jolla has turned to the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo to help make their Android-rivalling slate a bona fide reality.
In barely a few hours Jolla has already surpassed its $380,000 target. And while that goal may sound cheap when compared to the $32 million Canonical sought to raise, the hardware the Fins are offering is anything but:
Aside from out-classing its rivals in screen, power and price, the device is also being custom made and designed; this isn’t some off-the-shelf Android tablet from China with Sailfish OS slapped on, but a couture fit of hardware and software.
I won’t comment too much on the OS (suffice to say I haven’t used it). But Jolla pitch it as an ‘independent and open source’ alternative to Android and iOS, one focused on user privacy, customisation and simplicity.
And since it’s using a combination of Linux, Mer and Qt it should, in theory at least, be possible install regular Linux apps on it, too.
Jolla Tablet on IndieGoGo
If you want to back the Jolla Tablet on IndieGoGo you have until December 9 to do so. But be quick: at the time of writing only a handful of $199 tablet perks remain available, with the $189 tier having already sold out.
The tablet is expected to launch in May 2015 and run Sailfish OS 2.0.