Asking anyone to pay 250–260 euros for a 2 year old device when you can pay the same price and get the current model (which itself is already 1 year old) is quite a high ask. I don’t believe any of the places over here stock it.
I am sure Jolla would love to have a broader user base - at least initially, they were striving for becoming the third player in the mobile phone arena.
However, it turned out to be more difficult than expected.
My impression is that Jolla has not abandoned the idea to provide a mobile operating system for everyone, but:
Keeping up with hardware adaptation, QT licensing issues, ever-changing Android (and thus HW compatibility on a more abstract level), new features (VoLTE, Message and Calendar Synching etc.) are tremendous challenges for such a small team. And, of course, user tinkering with their devices causing a lot of adverse side effects not being anticipated and leading to complaints are further challenges.
In view of this, I am happy that there are decent devices with SFOS available and that they all work more or less flawlessly with me.
Jolla’s biggest problem might be that most people are happy with iOS or Android and the number of users that are not willing accept either one and instead are willing to accept limitation of an alternative system is small.
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I am happy if Jolla does not announce that Sailfish X is no longer going to be a actively developed for new devices - even if I would understand such decision, I would be disappointed. Maybe that Jolla is not only driven by commercial considerations (and necessities) but also by a vision (or a dream, you may say) and hope - just like me.
I hope that Jolla won’t give up on a mobile OS for consumers like me. And I also hope for an announcment of a new officialy supported device anytime this year (Maybe it will be Xperia 10 III 
).
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Oh I agree. I also hope they continue (hence this topic). I actually think Sailfish X is surprisingly cheap and would be OK if they brought an upgraded price or some subscription. The duopoly in mobile is boring. But as someone who has built and run an OS company, people need salaries and businesses have costs. It may not be feasible to support X going forwards.
Either way, it would perhaps help to hear a message on that.
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I think you pretty much nailed it down. My vision of the situation is that they’re making their living by developing the OS for the corporate cases and Sailfish X is a hobby side project, where you’re welcome to become a user for a small pay. But growing consumer (community) user base is not a focus any more.
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I suggested this as a topic for the next community meeting. Maybe we can get at least some clarification. If I’ve misunderstood how these meetings work, feel free to correct me.
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Wow, I really hope you’re wrong. But I get the feeling that you’ve nailed it exactly.
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I think you all are overthinking this.
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That’s a nice initiative. Although I wouldn’t have too high expectations of a straight answer from Jolla. Based on previous communications, let me sketch a kind of response you’ll probably get:
Sailfish X is in active and continuous development. We have no plans to stop its development or drop its support. We constantly work on introducing new features to it and improving our beloved OS. The latest Sailfish 4 release is the best evidence for this.
As for new devices, we do our best to make Sailfish X available for recent models. Unfortunately, our HW adaptation is constrained by availability of Sony AOSP drivers. We cannot disclose which next device is planned to be adopted until we can make an official announcement.
I’ll be very surprised if you get a more informative answer, they’re not sharing their priorities and internal information. Actually, there’s a link to Sailfish X on Jolla page, it’s just really obscured and it is easy to overlook.
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I completely understand SFOS and Jolla to have taken the route the did, it would have been that our out of the market completely. But they should revisit the options once again becasuse, since one year ago, the global scene and public perception on Android and iOS has dramatically changed. We, privacy oriented users, are still a minority but a substantial one now, even yet many even willing to pay for it (a thing that 4 yrs ago almost none would).
On the other hand, mobile phones will now start becoming like PCs, marginal differences for 2-3 years old one.
The biggest challenge is Xperia, relying in a manufacturer that could easily leave the market is a big threat, maybe Sailfish should consider alternative makers, yet differentiated enough, like HMD or Fairphone. Whatever the case, picking up two models only is fine. Also challenges is VoLTE (biggest market for privacy phone is the US still!) and multiple camera support.
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Perhaps then we need to change the question?
How about something more generic like:
- what will the strategy be for new phones on the SailfishX program? Will there be more phones in the coming years or are we restricted to the current supported selection?
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From here: https://github.com/mer-hybris/droid-config-sony-seine/commits/master
you can see that development is still ongoing and not stopped with recent bug fixes about multiple camera handling &splahscreen.
I think we have just to be patient! I’m one of those who anticipated and already bought the Xperia 10 II.
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Elsewhere though here it was stated that they are merely using the device for Android 10 testing. It could be nice to hear they are exploring that platform, or at least that the plan is for new phone support.
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We’re looking into broadening the supported Sailfish OS hardware selection and into enabling this product to the officially supported products. However, please bare in mind that for now we can’t promise any schedule for it and should you choose to obtain this hardware it shall be your decision at risk. Thank you keeping this clear in mind!
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Thanks for the information.
On my side, I’m aware that my approach was a bit risky to buy it before any official commitment.
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Its still an excellent phone, tho.
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That’s all we wanted to hear, thanks. It’s good to hear Sailfish X work continues.
(On a sitenote I see a whole bunch of my comments were flagged and hidden here, though they are just continuing the discussion and not trying to troll. Seems a bit heavy-handed 
).
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@Setok There were a couple of hints by users during this thread that you were taking the dicussion off-topic towards “Sailfish will die, why aren’t they porting more phones right now??!”. I guess you didn’t notice them. Jolla never has been very talkative but generally careful with announcements of unfinished products.
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Blockquote
Sailfish will die, why aren’t they porting more phones right now??!”
I don’t believe I said anything of the sort. In fact I stated I kind of understand if Sailfish X stops being developed, in order to keep Sailfish going. The future of Sailfish X is pretty relevant for this particular thread, though. I won’t argue the point further, though (as then we really will go off track). I’ll still pop the question at the community meeting tomorrow, perhaps to understand Sailfish X’s role within the company and what, if any, plans there are for it.
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So based on the community meeting, Sailfish X is not going away. It will soon gain a link on the front page which at least means it hasn’t been buried. They confirmed the business focus is elsewhere (corporate), but that Sailfish X is still needed for developers, evaluation and the consumer side is still being developed. The answer from earlier in this thread was also repeated: they are looking to support this device but cannot offer any schedule, so buy at your own risk. I was pointed to the adaption page for 10ii as a proxy for the ‘status’.
If the Finnish retailers still had the discounted offer on the white version, I’d probably buy now and keep it wrapped in a box somewhere. Just as something to look forwards to.
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