Tomi Pienimäki, the CEO of Finland-based Jolla Oy, has revealed that he hopes that the Sailfish OS can be sideloaded on Android devices.
Earlier in July 2012, the company teased its plans of building a new smartphone and MeeGo-based OS and finally released its much-awaited Sailfish OS phone last week.
While Jolla has more plans for distribution of the device, which include availability in brick and mortar stores of Finnish Carrier DNA this month, Pienimäki has let on that this is not the only means by which Jolla intends to garner market share for the OS.
In an interview with Finnish publication Talouselämä, Pienimäki disclosed that Jolla intends on letting users install or sideload the Sailfish OS on existing Android devices.
The Sailfish platform is compatible with Android apps, which enables users to run apps that are developed for the Google OS on Sailfish OS-enabled devices. According to Pienimäki, it is "fairly easy" for users to install Sailfish on Android devices. What's more, the CEO sees this sideloading ability as an opportunity for the OS to grow and increase its distribution.
"It is fairly easy to install the OS on Android devices. There is no such culture in these parts of the world [Finland], but there are people that are installing new operating systems on their devices," said Pienimäki (translated).
Pienimäki also went on to note that nearly half the smartphone buyers in China are upgrading older Android hardware with newer versions of the OS.
"In China it is the mainstream. About half of the smartphone buyers are upgrading Their older or cheaper devices with a better version of Android," he noted.
Furthermore, per Pienimäki, the users are already competent in installing operating systems and the company can take advantage of this by getting Sailfish onto websites which distribute the software.
"For us it is a possibility to distribute our operating system Especially in China. There are websites That Pre-owned distribute the [OS] software and the Chinese customers are doing it so we do not have to teach them. We just have to get to the Sailfish Those websites - and to make surethat Sailfish will run on different kind of Android devices," per Pienimäki.
However, Jolla's plans are yet to be firmed up, including how to make money from Sailfish OS, which Pienimäki says won't happen from the sale of Sailfish. According to him "applications, services or advertising" could be means of raking in the revenue in the long term.
