Jolla Sailfish Smartphones to come with Yandex Android App Store, Nokia HERE Maps

Jolla is a Finnish startup formed with ex-Nokia employees, it develops Sailfish operating system for mobile phones. Sailfish OS has its roots from MeeGO OS of Nokia. Jolla has announced its first Sailfish smartphone this May. Jolla today announced that they teamed with the Russian search giant Yandex to deliver Android applictions to its future Sailfish smartphones. Jolla has also announced that their devices will come with Nokia’s HERE Maps for mapping and navigation technology.

The Yandex Android store will come pre-loaded with the Sailfish OS and users will be able to directly download Android apps to their devices. Jolla’s Sailfish OS has an integrated Android runtime co-developed with Myriad AG which allows the Android apps to run on Jolla smartphones.

Currently the Yandex store has 85,000 applications in 17 categories, the list of apps include the popular titles like Facebook, Twitter, Forusquare, Skype, Viber and WeChat, it also offers popular games as well.

“Jolla’s strategy is always to work with the most respectable service partners in specific markets and create long-term strategic partnerships. We analysed a number of alternative Android app stores to use for our first markets in Europe, and quickly found that Yandex’s offer is very comprehensive and that they are very interested in developing their app store together with us for the needs of Sailfish customers”, says Jolla CEO, Tomi Pienimaki.

Jolla also partnered with HERE Maps division of Nokia for powering its Sailfish OS. Mapping and Navigation technology is crucial for any mobile smartphone platform and Jolla has partnered with HERE for the same. Also remember that Nokis’s devices division is sold to Microsoft but HERE will stay with Nokia only. Tizen also announced this week that it partnered with HERE for mapping and navigation.

Jolla is also welcoming developers to develop apps for Jolla’s Sailfish OS and submit their apps at harbour.jolla.com. Developers can download the free Sailfish SDK and develop native apps, Jolla’s store also accepts Android applications along with native applications, so developers can submit both the apps.

It would allow developers to submit their Android apps to Sailfish OS with out spending too much time in developing for the new OS. It is important for Jolla to get as many apps as possible before launching widely. The number of apps and popular titles is one of the priority for users now a days when buying a smartphone.

Support for Android apps and HERE Maps functionality will prove to be a good strategy for Jolla going forward.

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