Sailfish OS is the only mobile operating system offering a regional licensing model, which gives full source code level access. Partnerships operate in an open source manner; in practice it is a two-way contribution model where the customer gets access to all code from Sailfish core developer Jolla, and the customer’s software development contributes back to the Sailfish core in open source.

Starting a regional mobile OS engineering project is straightforward, and a commercial pilot can be reached in months.

One of the greatest motivators to start the project for Jala Group, the Sailfish licensing partner in Latin America, was the simple fact that Latin America has been technologically dependent and an importer of technology for a long time. As Latin America is not producing high technology itself, it faces the ever-increasing gap between the so-called ‘developed countries’ and those that must import technology. Jala Group wanted to change this, and announced the beginning of a Sailfish OS based project in the beginning of 2017.

Jala Group, founded in 2001 is a high-tech Bolivian holding company and a driving force for the software industry in Bolivia. Jala has currently more than 800 employees, including more than 600 software engineers.

Jorge Lopez, CEO of Jala Group commented: “Jala Group is reinforcing its vision that from Bolivia we can create and develop software with added value for the whole continent. By doing this we are forcefully driving the technological liberation of Latin America. It is time for us to stop being just consumers of technology in the form of products. Now we become creators of our own intellectual property.”
Mr. Lopez sees Sailfish OS as a real alternative to Android as it caters for the Latin American needs: “Even a well-developed and technologically advanced country such as Russia opted for the extensive use of Sailfish OS. Russia did so because of this system’s openness and the fact that it provides control over the security features that Russians need specifically to gain technological independence.”

ACCIONE mobile phone powered by Sailfish OS

A mobile operating system does not really exist without hardware, and Jala decided to launch its own low-cost hi-tech smartphone brand powered by Sailfish OS. Two ACCIONE models were reveled in October 2017 in a grand launch event in Bolivia together with Jolla and Qualcomm. The ACCIONE devices are a central part of the Sailfish Beta Program as the device platform for all R&D.

Jorge Lopez concludes: “We break the paradigm that from Bolivia it is not possible to impact the structures of the world’s technology and we construct the technological platform that will give way to the digitization of the Latin American economy.”

JALA