[Suggestion] Sell Sailfish OS for other Intel based Tablets
asked 2015-01-02 22:04:31 +0200
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Perhaps this is already being considered by the Jolla team, but I thought I'd suggest it just in case ...
It is well known that Intel has been quite aggressive in pushing their tablet platform to the market. And this perhaps has turned out to be a real blessing for Jolla as they had a ready-made hardware reference design (from Intel) to develop the new Jolla Tablet. When I compare the specs of other Intel tablets in the market, it appears that they too seem to be using very similar hardware as the Jolla tablet implying that they too may be using a common reference design from Intel.
This is great as it means porting Sailfish OS to these intel-based tablets would be much easier.
It would also give Jolla the opportunity to actually dip their toe and test out their business model - selling software(s) - while also providing more opportunity to test the OS on more diverse hardware. (I understand that Jolla would prefer to have a B2B relationship and deal with volumes, but since that doesn't seem to be happening, they should consider selling directly to the consumers. Competition is also likely to increase as Samsung pushes Tizen more aggressively from this year.)
I would be very willing to pay a reasonable amount for buying Sailfish OS for, say for example, Chinese tablets like these 2:
-> http://www.teclast.com/en/zt/X98Air/
-> http://www.onda.cn/Tablet/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductId=313
(These aren't exactly similar to the Jolla Tablet as they have larger screens and so probably use a slightly different reference design from Intel. However most of the hardware should be the same. The newly launched Nokia tablet comes to mind too ...)
Both the companies I gave as examples above - Onda and Teclast - already offer two operating systems for these tablet, namely Android 4+ and MS Windows 8+. And they also charge extra and "sell" you MS Windows 8+ if you would prefer to use that instead of Android (or even to dual boot with Android). Also, most of these tablets don't appear to have a locked bootlooader so maybe you could sell the OS directly to the consumer too.
I would like to add that I am not a big fan of Intel. But I understand that the ARM platform might be too diverse (and too closed source) for Jolla to successfully target for porting. As such, the Intel platform as a stopgap would be quite acceptable to the community.
Additionally, this would also give Sailfish OS fans like me, who didn't purchase the Jolla tablet (because the hardware specs didn't suit their requirement) an opportunity to continue supporting Jolla.
(Please don't just wait for Nokia to enter the mobile handset business again and buy you out ... )
