Finnish smartphone creator Jolla has inked an exclusive partnership with Indian e-commerce company SnapDeal to launch the Jolla smartphone in the country. Following the tie-up, the Jolla smartphone will be sold exclusively on Snapdeal.com within a month, as per the company.
Earlier this year, Jolla had issued a statement saying that the company was negotiating with partners in several countries, including Russia, India and Hong Kong where it intends to open online sales in the near future.
The Jolla smartphone was announced in May, last year and went on sale in November. The smartphone sports a 4.5-inch IPS qHD(540x960p) display. Powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, it comes with 16GB storage resilient via microSD card. It has a 2100mAh battery. It features an 8MP rear camera beside an LED flash, and a 2MP front-facing camera as well. One of the USPs of the phone is unsettled ‘The Other Half’ smart covers that also change the phone’s user interface theme.
It runs Sailfish OS, which is based on MeeGo, the same OS that was last seen on Nokia’s N9 smartphone. In fact, Jolla was founded by a group of ex-Nokia employees who were concerned with the development of MeeGo based devices at the company.
The Sailfish OS features button-less, gesture-based navigation and supports Android apps. Sami Pienimaki, co-founder and CMO of Jolla said, “India is the rising smartphone market of the world and we look forward to welcoming many new Jolla fans across the country. Since late 2011 when we established the company Jolla, we have received a tremendous amount of interest from India to enter this great market. In particular we have found it very encouraging how much there is interest and trust for mobile heritage coming from Finland, and what kind of development opportunities there are to start to develop e.g. local applications for India. We are super excited to be partnering with the market leader Snapdeal, who has extensive reach in the booming online commerce market of India. Through this position, we are confident to reach those interested in a true alternative to the mainstream players.”
The pricing of the phone has not been announced but it is sold in European markets at 349 euros (Rs 28,500 approximately).
The company will face tough rivalry from the likes of Chinese smartphone player Xiaomi, which is selling its flagship phone, Xiaomi Mi 3 at Rs 13,999.
