MeeGo company ex-Nokia employees closes big deal in China

Jolla Mobile, the company of ex-Nokia employees that continues to develop Linux-based MeeGo, has signed an initial deal to sell MeeGo phones with China’s largest telecom retailer.

The move is surprising, as Jolla Mobile hasn’t publicly shown any of the phones they’ll be making so far; even who should manufacture the hardware is not yet known. A few weeks ago, it emerged that many of the developers who worked on MeeGo at Nokia have now started the Jolla Mobile company, which continues to develop the mobile operating system. Jolla plans to release its first MeeGo phone by the end of this year.

Since Jolla consists only of software developers, employees have already hinted on Twitter that a well-known hardware manufacturer will make the phone. In any case, it is known that D.Phone, which claims to be the largest telephone retailer in China, wants to sell Jolla phones, reports fan site Nokia Innovation. D.Phone has around 1,300 telecom shops in China, where the phones can be placed on the shelves.

Nokia developed MeeGo together with Intel. However, the Finnish manufacturer never released a MeeGo phone. The only phone released with a Linux-based operating system after the partnership was announced is the N9, which runs on Maemo 6, which has been referred to as MeeGo Harmatten for compatibility with MeeGo. Nokia discontinued MeeGo after it decided to focus on Windows Phone devices. Also ‘project Meltemi’, which was to lead to a variant of MeeGo for cheap telephones, was recently stopped.