First batch of Jolla Sailfish smartphones sold out, follow-up campaign a possibility

Finnish startup Jolla has now closed the first batch of orders before the general release of the Sailfish OS-sporting smartphone. The team, which was assembled from Nokia's abandoned MeeGo experiment, is now looking at planning a follow-up campaign.

Back in May, Jolla launched its “Other Half” pre-sale campaign to understand the demand for its Sailfish OS smartphone. It also hoped to find committed buyers ahead of the launch of its first device. Jolla is not giving out the exact number of devices that were pre-booked due to “customer confidentiality”, according to ZDNet. However, a spokesperson for the startup has said that the normal size of a production batch for a mobile device vendor is 50,000 units.

Consumers in the European Union as well as Norway and Switzerland were earlier offered a deal wherein they could make a €100 ( Rs 8,610 approx) down payment to get a €100 voucher off the overall €399 (Rs 34,230 approx) price of the device as well as "priority pre-order status".  

Jolla has closed the booking orders for the first batch of its Sailfish OS running smartphone

While the actual number of pre-orders is still unconfirmed, Jolla has said that both consumers and “selected sales channels” have bought out the first batch. The smartphones are stipulated for delivery by the end of the year. The startup has also claimed that it received pre-orders from 136 countries. This is up from the 118 countries that were earlier reported.

It should be noted that the €100 down payment option was only open to consumers in the EU, Norway and Switzerland, though. Consumers from outside these countries had the option of booking the device without a down payment, according to what a Jolla spokesperson told the source. 

So far, the only carrier that has committed to sell the smartphone once it is available is DNA, one of Finland’s largest operators. The startup is looking at expanding its carrier support, but the spokesperson would not expand on what the startup meant by "selected sales channels". The spokesperson did say that Jolla was in talks with "several other operators in various countries".

The startup’s CEO, Pienimäki, has given disappointed fans who may have missed out on the first batch some hope, though. According to the source report, the Jolla headhoncho said, "For those, who missed the first opportunity, we are now doing our best to offer a second chance, a new batch of Jolla smartphones later in the autumn. I encourage everyone interested in Jolla to sign up at jolla.com and be the first to know about any new developments, such as the opening of the next pre-sales campaign."

View the original article here