Sailfish OS Reportedly Coming To Android, Will Be Available For Download And Installation

Android may be the top smartphone OS right now, and recent sales and market share reports show evidence of its dominance in the market. But that does not mean there wouldn't be any aspiring platforms who want to take it on one-on-one. The Tizen project by Samsung has been in the works for the past few years, but it has yet to see the light of day within a smartphone. Now, the Sailfish OS looks like it's in the perfect situation to make that move.

A couple of weeks back, the Jolla smartphone was released in Europe, and it is powered by Sailfish OS. However, most people may not want to spend €399 just to try out the new platform. 

Fortunately, the company seemed to have already thought about it, and it has recently announced that the operating system will be available for download and installation for Android phones. In an interview with the company's CEO Tomi Pienimäki, he mentioned in a Finnish website that it is indeed 'the plan':

"That is the plan. We are on device business and OS business. It is fairly easy to install the OS on Android devices"

"There is no such culture in these parts of the world [Finland], but there are people that are installing new operating systems on their devices. In China it is mainstream. About half of the smartphone buyers are upgrading their older or cheaper devices with a better version of Android."

"For us it is a possibility to distribute our operating system especially in China. There are websites that already distribute [OS] software and the Chinese customers are doing it ¬so we don't have to teach them. We just have to get Sailfish to those websites - and to make sure that Sailfish will run on different kind of Android devices."

However, it is still unclear whether the OS download will be available directly from Google's Play Store. But considering its recent move to take out an Android-based CyanogenMod from its store, it is slightly worrisome how a non-Android OS installer can make it. 

Meanwhile, in several website forums, users are expressing their interest towards Sailfish OS and may even want to download and try it once it becomes available. However, most of them says they would probably have no reservations if they can still return to Android in case they don't like the OS.