There are currently two major players in the smartphone market: Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Of course, there are also several relatively minor players (in terms of market share), including Microsoft with its Windows Phone platform, RIM’s Blackberry and even Mozilla’s nascent Firefox OS.
You may remember another OS known as MeeGo from a while back, which Intel and Nokia officially retired before it even hit the mobile market. And now elements of MeeGo are being resurrected, courtesy of Jolla’s Sailfish OS.
According to Jolla, the operating system and accompanying UI is all about speed, multitasking and intuitive interaction. For example, the operating system employs a “pulley” menu system that allows users to access major features such as music playback controls and call capability – all without opening an actual app.
Jolla also claimed that “many” Android applications would be able to run on Sailfish handsets with little or no modification. The operating system currently supports multiple chipset technologies, with ST-Ericsson offering support for Sailfish OS on the NovaThor platform.
The Sailfish SDK is currently available for devs and includes Mer Core’s tools, Qt Creator, Jolla UI components, Sailfish UI framework, and Sailfish handset application interfaces. Ultimately, the Sailfish Alliance hopes to unite OEM and ODM manufacturers, chipset providers, operators, app developers, and retailers. Check out the Jolla presentation video above for more details.
