Greetings,
This announcement starts an update sequence where we provide information on how the Next gen Jolla Phone planning progresses. As we’re doing this together with you and for you, Sailfish Community, we want to be transparent on the progress of realising this unique European project. This would be truly a Do-It-Together (DIT) Linux smartphone which would be defined together with you all! Maybe this is even the first truly community specified Linux smartphone in the world?
First of all, thank you all for the overwhelming response, input and discussion still going on even daily-basis in the original questionnaire. We have followed the discussion and are truly taken with great respect that there is such an interest for the project! It seems there is great interest to realise the next Jolla Phone and willingness in the community to commit for pre-orders. As we noted in the original announcement, we estimate that to make the next gen Jolla Phone commercially viable we should get in minimum 2,000 pre-orders so we can start the project. This is not yet the announcement of the project kick-off and pre-orders starting but a step on the project planning, in particular certain key aspects of the specification.
Hearing you out, we’re happy to note that it seems we would be able to realise pretty much all key specification criterias of the envisioned next gen Jolla Phone.
The device size goes in hand with the screen size. Now, in our volumes we’re dependant on availability of existing screen modules from the component vendors which we need to match to the 5G SoC platform without massive PCBA redesign (the “motherboard” of a phone). After thorough digging and negotiations we have found couple of options which would be smaller than the industry “standard” for this type of product (which tends to be nowadays 6.5” or more), and which we could apply with the 5G SoC platform. Thus, it looks like we’ll be able to realise the product with a smaller than 6.5” display. The aspect ratio is another one. Many of you have commented that the aspect ratio found e.g. in the popular Sony devices is a bit too “long” for many, and rather a ratio from 16:9 to 20:9 would be preferred. Nowadays, a 16:9 display in a modern smartphone configuration is rare combo and for our volumes infeasible to realise. Further it would likely make the product housing significantly wider than necessary by the PCBA, so a good compromise here will be needed.
Jolla is known for the extra long life-cycle of its products and we remain committed to keep it so. We consider the fact of a good quality hardware with long-term SW updates to be the best recipe for sustainable products for years to come. To enhance this further, we have put some extra effort to design in to the product end user replaceable battery with good capacity & density. While this requires some extra effort and customisation, we consider, just like many of you in the questionnaire responses, it is worth it.
About the pricing. Now, as noted we have together with you certain custom requirements to the hardware configuration, such as the size and custom battery configuration, which are not off-the-shelf in the current industry standard process. That combined with our expected volumes we won’t be able to match the prices of common high-volume Android devices out there. On the other hand, we strive to build more life-cycle value in the software, so we won’t need to push the one-off hardware sale margin through the roof as seen in some other alternative phone projects. Thus, we think we’ll be able to price the product attractive in its category and target audience – we’ll come to that once the time is ready!
Further down the line, it seems it would be feasible to have the tick-box exercise completed with the memory configuration including support for SD cards, fingerprint reader, Dual SIM, NFC, indication LED and so on.
Follow the progress on Mastodon jolla (@jolla@techhub.social) - TechHub and other social media with #nextgenjollaphone. Stay tuned!
Easier to hold on to the side of Jolla-boat - also during a bit murkier waters 
