VIDEO: Jolla posts teaser video, names smartphone launch date

Jolla, a start-up founded by staff from Nokia’s elite Meego-N9 smartphone development team, has posted a teaser video hinting at the imminent announcement of its first smartphone.

The video uses the tagline, “I am the other half” and ends with the message, “All will be revealed on [the] 20th of May.”

Jolla was formed by a number of former engineers and executives from Nokia’s MeeGo-N9 division, who wanted to continue development on the next-generation MeeGo smartphone platform, which the Finnish phone giant abandoned in favour of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

In October of last year, the company successfully raised €200 million ($US258 million) from a variety of telecommunications industry players, following the initial funding the company received through Nokia’s Bridge project.

The company has created a new version of the MeeGo smartphone platform, codenamed Sailfish, which is anticipated to be used on a Jolla smartphone to be announced next month.

Nokia’s decision to abandon MeeGo in favour of Windows Phone for its Lumia smartphones has been controversial, with former executive Tomi Ahonen attacking current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop over the decision.

By November, the company demonstrated its forthcoming MeeGo-based Sailfish OS platform during its presentation at the Slush developer conference in Finland.

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