Jolla today announced that its still-in-development smartphone operating system, called Sailfish, is compatible with the Android ecosystem. Specifically, Sailfish can run most Android applications without the need to modify the apps or use a runtime environment in the OS. Further, Sailfish itself can now run on most Android hardware, including smartphones and tablets. Jolla says this will be a boon to its mobile operating system, as hardware manufacturers will be able to put Sailfish on existing hardware with little additional investment on their part. Last, Jolla announced that it sold through its initial batch of preorders for the first Sailfish OS device, but it will offer a second batch of preorders to people in Finland (where Jolla is based) in the weeks ahead. Sailfish is based on Nokia's discarded MeeGo platform and offers a modern, touch-based user interface. Jolla hopes that Sailfish can eventually compete with Android, Windows Phone, and iOS.


More...