asked 2019-03-31 13:52:21 +0200
Came across this article: Sony to slash smartphone workforce 50% by 2020 and wonder if this could negatively impair Jolla/Sailfish?
I hope not, but it would be more reassuring if the Sony smartphone business would be flourishing.
answered 2019-04-01 10:14:43 +0200
Sailfish OS needs its own HW. Its unique in the way you interact with it and it should stop being crippled by phones that are not designed with it in mind.
And sadly Jolla doesn't care about it. Jollas problem has always been HW.
Yes, Sailfish OS specific HW would be nice! I wouldn't say Jolla doesn't care about it, I think it's more because Jolla is too small for HW and it would be too dangerous for their existence.
In principle I think that Xperias are a worthy successor for the original Jolla. My only 'problem' is, that I didn't find enough motivation to change away from the Jolla: XA2 is too big, Xperia X Compact quite nice but 'android- and official-support-challenged'. -- Maybe a reduced Sony smartphone workforce leads to a more simplified phone range with better focus to the unique Xperia selling points?
chappi ( 2019-04-01 12:16:31 +0200 )editIf a phone doesn't have official support from the company is not for me (xperia xc). The dev behind a port might change priorities and you will end with something unsupported. I was hopping jolla will port SFOS to xz2c which is kind of small-we need smaller than that- but this didn't happen.
Truly the only thing that frustrates me with SFOS and might make me move away from it is the HW.
ApB ( 2019-04-01 12:40:52 +0200 )editWhile I am pleased with Sony's Open Device programme, I think a selection more aligned with Jolla's commitment to privacy and freedom would be Fairphone or Purism (Librem 5). I'm really not sure why they haven't been working on a partnership with them. If they are, that's great, but Jolla also needs to work on its press releases and communication to consumers. It's been terrible, with an average of one post on the blog per month. The announcement of the SDK broke that pattern, so perhaps it will be getting better, maybe even approaching what it was during the ramp up to the tablet. Speaking of, I'd really like a Sailfish-powered tablet! I hope there will be a partnership with someone to offer one in the near future.
sunburnedpenguin ( 2019-04-01 14:42:39 +0200 )editthe last time they did hw, it didnt fly well. Then again, perhaps now, that the OS is more solid, and got rid of the BETA logo (which appeared the evening of Narikkatori), they might have a better chance at it.
tortoisedoc ( 2019-04-02 00:00:47 +0200 )editAsked: 2019-03-31 13:52:21 +0200
Seen: 571 times
Last updated: Apr 01 '19
This is sad. Sony is one of the few manufacturers which embrace open source and ship their phones with recent kernels / Android versions as well as keep the software up-to-date. Related Hacker News discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19530986
skvark ( 2019-03-31 14:56:08 +0200 )editMaybe that explains the slashing?
tortoisedoc ( 2019-03-31 19:50:39 +0200 )editThey first remove the jack from compact series after which teh sales got down then they did remove the compact series and sales went down again now they wondering what's wrong... well there's a lot of phones on the the market that's of the size of the frying pane, and no alternative for peoples that would like to buy small phones - latest xperia compact is too big. So in the end Sony offer is very limited and there's nothing interesting for the mass market. They could get back compact with jack and get their niche at least.
And last thing is their DRM stuff that makes camera useless once you install AOSP or any non stock firwamre.
lolek ( 2019-04-01 00:17:08 +0200 )edit