Ex-Nokia staff launch a new start-up named Jolla to continue MeeGo smartphone development

Former Nokia staff have launched a new start-up, named Jolla, in order to continue development of the Linux-based MeeGo smartphone platform.

The new venture was first announced via a Twitter message, which read: “New #MeeGo smartphones will be created together with our industrial and investor partners and with support of the MeeGo community.”

Following the initial announcement, Jolla’s chief operating officer Marc Dillon issued a statement saying: “Jolla Ltd. is a Finland-based smartphone company which continues the great work that Nokia started with MeeGo. The Jolla team is formed by directors and core professionals from Nokia’s MeeGo N9 organisation, together with some of the best minds working on MeeGo in the communities.”

“Nokia created something wonderful – the world’s best smartphone product. It deserves to be continued.”

“Together with international investors and partners, Jolla Ltd. will design, develop and sell new MeeGo-based smartphones.”

Before signing on to Windows Phone, Nokia had been working on two Linux-based platforms (Meltemi for featurephones and MeeGo for smartphones) that it originally planned to use as a replacement for Symbian. However, further development of the Linux-based platforms was scrapped as part of the 10,000 job cuts recently announced at the company.