Issue #1: Jolla Survival Plan (failure is not an option) [released 2015-12-18] [released]

asked 2015-11-27 23:39:20 +0200

This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.

updated 2016-01-30 16:15:13 +0200

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[UPDATE 2016-01-30] Tablet Solution
Jolla has presented their answer for the TabletGate. Case closed. In my opinion, the answer "accept community made patches upstream" is now the best idea for securing a successful future for Jolla.
[UPDATE 2015-12-18] Jolla is back in business!
Congratulations! The correct answer has obviously been to be successful in negotiations and to cut costs. But as the author of this post I will take the freedom to accept answers as I see appropriate from now on. There have been some very good suggestions here and Jolla management would be wise to study them in detail.
But for the moment, let us celebrate that this bug has been fixed :-)

If you agree that Jolla and Sailfish OS must live on, please vote this up!

Help making this the top issue to send out a clear message that we do not want the Jolla ship to go down without a fight. (Show a great heart and give your vote even if you do not like everything that follows. BTW, this is a community wiki, your votes do not increase my karma.)

Contribute your ideas what Jolla should do now as answers (how to raise money, what business strategies to pursue, what mistakes to correct, etc.). One idea only per answer. Do not duplicate existing answers, vote for them. Use comments (not answers) for discussions and criticism.

Interesting background information:

[UPDATE 2015-12-15] Rowing the boat frantically: It looks positive, and a solution is possible already in the next few days. Sailfish OS 2.0.1, is coming up soon.
http://reviewjolla.blogspot.ch/2015/12/news-update-debts-on-hold-at-jolla.html

Jolla is now fighting for its survival. The key thing in this fight is that we succeed in our December financing round. If we do so, also the Tablet project can be resolved.
https://blog.jolla.com/open-letter-jolla-community/

I believe that through this program Jolla can turn its business to be profitable in the future.
http://reviewjolla.blogspot.ch/2015/11/news-jolla-financial-trouble-debt.html

As a Jolla employee -who is still an employee- despite the layoff notice, I can tell you that there is still hope in the company surviving.
http://reviewjolla.blogspot.ch/2015/11/its-not-delays-its-that-world-is-slow.html

Jolla is hopeful that it can raise additional funding in December.
http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/business/13626-jolla-unable-to-deliver-pre-ordered-tablets.html

[UPDATE 2015-11-30, some valid points to consider] Issue #2: Why Jolla deserved to fail (opinion)https://together.jolla.com/question/123511/issue-2-why-jolla-deserved-to-fail-opinion/

Nokia rumored to bring out a new smartphone with Android and Windows:
http://www.pressexaminer.com/nokia-c1-rumors-legends-return/79170
How about Sailfish as a 3rd option?

Nokia Launches $16.6 Billion Offer for Alcatel-Lucent
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nokia-launches-16-6-billion-offer-for-alcatel-lucent-1447845588
Nokia seems to have money to spend. It would be nothing but fair if they would correct their mistake and help out Jolla now!

Why you should vote for this issue:

Jolla disappearing from the surface of earth is the most serious possible bug, isn't it? So this issue rightfully deserves more votes than even the notorious "Downloadable map-data and offline turn by turn navigation in Maps".

Look around and understand that there is NO shortage of money on this planet. It just happens that a lot of money flows to stupid or outright destructive purposes. Random examples:

A single man is valued at 120 million Euros, more than twice the sum that has been invested in Jolla.
http://www.transfermarkt.com/spieler-statistik/wertvollstespieler/marktwertetop
A house is being sold for $22.9 million in La Jolla. Impress your girl-friend by investing in Jolla rather than buying her a villa in La Jolla (pun intended)!
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hotprop-ted-waitt-house-20151124-story.html
The U.S. Postal Service loses $25 million. A day.
http://www.newsmax.com/US/post-office-congress-pensions/2013/05/28/id/506654/
The criminals of ISIS have a yearly budget of two frickin billion dollars to bring hate, fear and destruction to the world.
http://europe.newsweek.com/isis-release-2015-budget-projections-2bn-250m-surplus-296577

The list is endless and you can certainly agree with me that the money invested in Jolla has produced much better results than many other "investments". Well, maybe except for the first point in the list... Messi is cool :-)

We really had enough bullshit on this planet and it is about time something good happened. Jolla surviving would be a nice start.
In our minds, let us all disagree with the gloom and doom for Jolla and instead envision a bright future where a user-friendly and mature Sailfish OS will give Google and Apple a run for their money and make Microsoft turn green with envy. The biggest battles are fought on a mental level. May the force be with Jolla :-)

Why am I writing this?

This week I happened to wear my Jolla T-shirt ("I am the first one") that I got for placing an early order.
I felt nostalgic and remembered how hopeful I was for this device, how much I enjoyed each update and how I grew to like this phone with all the faults it surely still has.
I remembered the many hours wasted away for rooting my Android devices just so I could use them reasonably. And I shuddered at the thought of having to return to this tedious route.
I remembered how much I read and learned about Windows Phone, iOs, Ubuntu phone, Firefox OS, Bada, Plasma Mobile, Tizen and BlackBerry OS 10.
All of these operating systems have serious drawbacks and even with its current weaknesses Saifish OS always came out on top as the best OS for my personal requirements.
So I decided that Jolla and Sailfish OS have to survive. And I hope you agree with me.

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The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by nthn
close date 2017-03-06 12:44:07.959738

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That's the spirit! :) I'm happy to see this post. At least something cheerful! :)

Venemo ( 2015-11-28 11:40:02 +0200 )edit

+1 Let's vote it up +2000!

lakutalo ( 2015-11-28 12:48:10 +0200 )edit

Voted already, Jolla disappearing is definitely not an option, alot of people love the phone am using, how sad would it be if the phone goes out of the market

DameCENO ( 2015-11-28 15:33:29 +0200 )edit

Thank you for the commitment. I think this is the perfect answer on the current developments.

cma ( 2015-11-28 17:09:04 +0200 )edit

Nokia buying Jolla is my biggest dream at the moment. Because Sailfish is the only one for me and that with Nokias hardware would be supercool.

MJolla ( 2015-11-30 21:24:38 +0200 )edit

48 Answers

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answered 2015-12-15 21:06:53 +0200

dglent
773 ●17 ●29 ●34

I work in a big automobiles company. Among my thousands collueges, NOBODY knows Jolla. When apple releases a new model, it is announced even in the night news broadcast. I don't stop to say that jolla is better than apple and cheaper. I show my jolla to others, i give them a try in demonstration mode with the tutorial, they like it, one have boughted, but it is not enouph. I strongly believe that jolla needs to be known to the potential customers, so it needs time to spread the product. Another solution would be to proposed it by mobile companies when someone wants to buy a phone from his cellurar provider.

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answered 2015-12-17 18:43:00 +0200

anti_gone

41 ●2 ●3

Jolla management action:

Add native PGP and OTR support to SailfishOS

If security is your unique selling point it's a shame these important features are missing and we still have to use Android apps for encrypted communication.

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answered 2015-12-03 15:12:27 +0200

StaticNoiseLog

5633 ●58 ●77 ●97

updated 2015-12-03 23:34:31 +0200

Government of Finland action:

Grab NOKIA by their (tax-)balls. Hard. Force them to pay 1 Mio Euro for each ex-employee who is now collecting unemployment. As a punishment for unethical business practices when they sold out Finland's pride to Microsoft. OR, alternatively, offer them a chance to invest in Jolla and their crimes would be forgiven :-)
OK, this is not meant very seriously. I normally believe in a free market and all, so this is just a very bitter comment. But sometimes I really wonder, with all that corruption and bribery going on... those big international corporations seem to be allowed to act outside the law, even create their own laws. Definitely many of them operate extremely selfish and not ethical. Let us hope NOKIA is a good example of a responsible entity that considers making up for past dammage done.

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lol :) I remember a time when NOKIA had the government by their balls, threatening to move all facilities away from FI, to get tax reductions. Maybe they're still scared. Mutha revenge :)

lakutalo ( 2015-12-03 15:18:15 +0200 )edit

@lakutalo: I did not know that, but it is exactly what I do not like: When corporations become so powerful that they can override an elected government and democratically established rules. And when they finally should pay the price for their unethcial behavior (and that day always comes) you have to bail them out, like certain banks... For the moment let us bail out Jolla, they at least deserve the help :-)

StaticNoiseLog ( 2015-12-03 15:24:56 +0200 )edit

The only cure for this disease would be global tax covenants. We are still miles away from that. Give me the cash, I'll bail out Jolla ;)

lakutalo ( 2015-12-03 16:13:19 +0200 )edit

answered 2015-12-09 22:41:56 +0200

StaticNoiseLog

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Learn from the errors that were made with Firefox Mobile (it is history now).
But also learn from what they did right! They got several manufacturers to sell Firefox phones. How did they do that considering that Firefox Mobile is inferior to Sailfish in almost every respect?

Mozilla kills Firefox OS

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Firefox OS isn't dead, it'll still be on TVs :)

Vuubi ( 2015-12-10 00:44:41 +0200 )edit

@Vuubi: Goof to hear! Now all we need is a TV set with a SIM card slot :-)

StaticNoiseLog ( 2015-12-10 08:53:11 +0200 )edit

answered 2015-11-30 01:43:23 +0200

This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.

updated 2015-11-30 01:46:19 +0200

peterhil
1 ●4

Team up with Solu Computers.

a Jolla phone could be used as a controller, much like the Solu computer with a touch screen
integrate the Solu platform into Sailfish (through Dalvik)
Solu might be willing to license Sailfish (they do want to develop their own OS)
provide a cheaper means to develop applications (on Jolla phones) for the Solu platform
alternative and easy way to develop (HTML5) apps for Jolla phones through Solu platform
sync your data safely and privately through Solu’s servers

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Thanks for mentioning SoLu, I had not heard it before. A very interesting project and indeed a collaboration might be feasible one day. But as far as I can tell this would require investing lots of money first and therefore I do not see how this could help with Jolla's immediate problems. Only if SoLu had really deep pockets and would themselves want to invest in Jolla. But I doubt that this is the case, them being a small start-up, too.

StaticNoiseLog ( 2015-12-03 14:16:18 +0200 )edit

answered 2015-12-03 16:55:46 +0200

lakutalo

20555 ●168 ●261 ●264

updated 2015-12-03 23:51:01 +0200

Developer community action:

Build something to really show off

We would need something that is not as easily achievable on other phones as on SFOS, just to show off how powerful SFOS is. We have already all tools needed on the device - provided developer mode is engaged. One quick suggestion would be the Wearable Super Computer, by just porting MPI, Beowulf or whatever to SFOS and then establish a computing cluster among Jolla owners. Utilise parallel computing for scientific software running on Jolla phones. There's already a nice thread here on TJC.

I'm in, who else wants to join?

Imagine a meteorite unexpectedly heading towards earth, and we need all computing power we can gather, just to calculate the correct trajectory for the interceptor rocket. One shot, one chance. A Jolla would come in handy, wouldn't it? ;) (Wouldn't that be a nice TV spot?)

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answered 2015-12-11 00:40:35 +0200

xenoide

826 ●11 ●21 ●30

"Reconsider marketing and target audience." To become just another Android clone and lose the uniqueness? Thanks a lot for the fish.

"We are unlike." Nice slogan. So was Palm, RealPlayer and MS Zune. But it was not sufficient to survive.

And that is not what counts. Sure, geeks will love it but besides all those high ideals, whitout profitability no business. Find a market niche which gets the cash flowing, analyse the customers.

"A product which is secure, defines your privacy as its primary goal, offers you a performant user interface even with old hardware AND brings you Android compatibility". That's better, even more geeks will like it but probably still not profitable.

Licensing SFOS to third world and emerging markets could be profitable but that's casting pearls before swine.

So in my bold arrogance I outlined the "maybe not so good" ideas. And everybody will demand the shining revelation now, how to build a profitable niche mobile OS.

But I am sorry, I do not have this answer and I highly doubt, anyone will find it. That would be the holy grail of mobile SW, you could license the idea alone to become a billionaire. Look at Firefox OS, Ubuntu Phone, Tizen, heck even Windows Phone. All of them are struggling to gain market share or even to survive.

If I may advise Jolla, I would suggest to encourage local students at the universities around Helsinki to come up with ideas to redefine, extend and advance the way we would use mobile devices in about 5 years. And to incorporate these ideas right now. Innovation by revolution. Not by adapting to Iphone and Android with a modified UI, this won't work in the long run.

History proves it.

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Interesting thoughts. It is really not a viable strategy to produce a "me too" Android or iOS. Windows Phone, though a really good OS, could not do it with all the money thrown at it. The reason why I got interested in an alternative OS was simply CONTROL OVER MY DEVICE. I wanted to extend the battery life of my Android and had to realize that I was not free to choose what services were running in the background. The phone even came with hidden software installed that I could not remove without rooting. To my knowledge there is not a single mobile phone that is sold with an OS that gives me root access, except the Jolla. Not even Cyanogen OS has root (CyanogenMod does, but to install it you have to root your phone). What it would take for me is:

official root access (I am fine with giving up the guarantee for this)
security and regular updates
possibility to run Android or iOS apps
some way to extend/upgrade hardware (could be as simple as a universal port and a screw to attach an external device, TOH simplified)
stellar battery life
a thriving community of geeks contributing hacks for the system and apps

Jolla is so close! Of course Apple, Google and Microsoft could do all of the above, but I cannot see that they will ever comply with the first point.

StaticNoiseLog ( 2015-12-11 11:14:12 +0200 )edit

answered 2015-11-29 23:53:41 +0200

This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.

updated 2015-11-29 23:53:41 +0200

StaticNoiseLog

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Everybody action:

Consider the emergency crowdfunding ideas in this thread:
https://together.jolla.com/question/122312/emergency-crowdfunding/?answer=122420#post-id-122420

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Issue #1: Jolla Survival Plan (failure is not an option) [released 2015-12-18] [released]

The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by nthn
close date 2017-03-06 12:44:07.959738

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Issue #1: Jolla Survival Plan (failure is not an option) [released 2015-12-18] [released]

The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by nthn close date 2017-03-06 12:44:07.959738

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The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by nthn
close date 2017-03-06 12:44:07.959738