skanky | # 1381 | 2015-10-13, 10:05 | Report

Search results are a gateway into the ecosystem. That's what the reviews need to look at - it's a new OS.

Anyway, I know, I admit it, I was wrong to expect a review to mention Openrepos, or much useful, really. I don't normally bother with professional reviews (or specialist magazines or websites). The vast majority of them are worthless (partly for the reasons you give). I only clicked through on these as I curious about what device they had been given. I'll go back to ignoring them, again. Life's too short to read them or get into pointless discussions about them.

Copernicus | # 1382 | 2015-10-13, 10:12 | Report

And, once again, I just have to ask: why would Jolla actually want to sell phones/tablets? They aren't making any money off them. Their core product is Sailfish, and that is now starting to be licensed by customers that can provide Jolla with a sustainable income...

pichlo | # 1383 | 2015-10-13, 10:39 | Report

I did not say the product is the hardware. I did not read all the reviews but those that I did read also did not put the main focus on the hardware, suggesting that the reviewers get it too (either that or they grokked very quickly that the hardware is nothing special and they focused on the one aspect that was different from anyone else).

But look at it this way. You are a new rock/pop/jazz band. The product you want to sell is the music, not the medium. Does that mean the medium on which you send the demo to the critics/publishers does not matter?

About the licensing - you do not know what is going on behind the scene. Let us see how that pans out.

ZogG | # 1384 | 2015-10-13, 11:00 | Report

Exactly, he is developer. Not developers, but single dev. Maybe there 2-3 that we might not even know about. but there are about 5-10 well known maemo and now Jolla devs and most them asking the same question — who are devs who got devices. And now compare it to "dev" units Jolla sent to reviewers.
So again it's about what is more important: to support devs to port/create apps (even not talking about proper payments on official store app) or about sending units for reviews? :P

But yes, I do not know to read and jumping to assumptions too quick :P

Copernicus | # 1385 | 2015-10-13, 11:07 | Report

Well, yeah, except maybe not. If you're Apple or Google, you're trying to get customers to buy a product that you've built yourself, that you maintain yourself, and over which you essentially have total control. (Google was originally fiddling with some fairly open concepts, but lately they've been making moves to enhance their control over Android.)

In such an environment, you've gotta sell this product as the best thing since sliced bread, because your customers sure as heck ain't gonna have any ability to modify it themselves.

Jolla, on the other hand, is offering a product that gives you a much finer degree of control. Sure, it doesn't come complete with all the bells and whistles of iOS or Android; but then, you yourself can make up the difference with your own software.

Maybe we now live in a world where only one or two companies can write their own software, and everyone else has to just live with the results. But if not, then Jolla is acting rationally -- the point is not to show that they have a full-blown iOS / Android level OS that already serves every need of the end-user, but rather that they've got a customizable system available that has already done all of the hard GUI work for you. You only need to install your own middleware into the system, and poof, your mobile device is ready to ship.

Anyway, that's my theory.

tl;dr: Jolla doesn't need to show that they themselves have produced the next iPhone. It's enough to show that they've got a pleasing and usable GUI, that licensees can enhance to turn into their own custom iPhone.

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Last edited by Copernicus; 2015-10-13 at 11:29.

pichlo | # 1386 | 2015-10-13, 11:33 | Report

Another thing that occurred to me regarding this "Sailfish as a product" idea. If you want to showcase how fantastic your new OS is, would it not be better to demonstrate it by proving that you do not need a custom HW to go with it? In other words, take a well-known existing device, load your OS onto it and show how much better it is than the OS the device originally came with. Making your own HW just sends mixed messages.

If that is the plan, then I hope it will come quickly (note that I am deliberately avoiding the 4-letter s-word that Jolla users have learned to treat as profanity). As far as I know, all ports to other HW so far have been the results of a community effort and none of them are officially supported.

att | # 1387 | 2015-10-13, 11:58 | Report

I see it as a direct result of what is happening in chinese phone and tablet markets. If you buy Android phone or tablet in China it is very likely there won't be any Google apps and services installed or available for the device because they have been removed by the vendor.

JulmaHerra | # 1388 | 2015-10-13, 11:59 | Report

There may be legal restrictions how you can use other manufacturers devices to promote your own. Also, doing it would send a message that you can install Sailfish OS on existing devices (which is partially true) and if it's reviewed like that, general public interprets it like supported way, which it is not. N9 and N950 were used as developer devices for Sailfish, but for legal reasons Jolla could not officially support Sailfish on those devices. So, having those "spearhead devices" seems to be the only sensible option to have at least something supported shipping, until there are manufacturers willing to license and launch devices using Sailfish. Maybe this will clear out once the split between HW and SW companies is finished.

kteak | # 1389 | 2015-10-13, 12:50 | Report

Another update available @ Jolla Blog:

https://blog.jolla.com/tablet_faq/

aegis | # 1390 | 2015-10-13, 13:38 | Report

Absolutely. I don't want them too either but then...

Bingo. And that's what I loved about the N9 and N900. You plugged in services not apps and it became a part of the phone. Somewhere along the way that unique experience has been lost.

I appreciate that today some of those companies are even more precious about their APIs than before and Jolla isn't Nokia so their influence or ability to licence is not in the same league but we've enough creative people in the community that could unofficially hack an API if only there was somewhere to plumb it in to. That's the disappointing thing with Sailfish 2.0. We're no closer to what we had in the N9 4 years ago.