Later this month, Jolla will announce its first smartphone, and in preparation for this milestone event, the company has restructured its management team. This comes just a few months after CEO Jussi Hurmola moved on, handing the business over to Marc Dillon, who has been key in getting Sailfish OS ready for launch.
It’s fitting then, that Dillon will become Head of Software Development, particularly given his background at Nokia, where he worked on both Symbian and Series 40. Dillon’s infectious drive will be far better suited to promoting Sailfish, something which was clear when the software was unveiled last year. He confirms this in his press statement, saying he is exited to, “Give 100 percent attention to what I love – working on the product with the Jolla team.
With Dillon’s reappointment, Tomi Pienimaki comes in as Jolla’s new CEO. Formerly CIO of logistics firm Itella Corporation, Pienimaki will be building relationships with Jolla’s partners, and presumably be focusing more on the business aspect of running the company. Taking to Twitter for only the third time, Pienimaki said earlier today, “My sailing season is about to start soon.”
Jolla now boasts a 70-strong team, and is gearing up to launch its first phone during May. The exact date of the event has yet to be confirmed, but we can expect pre-orders to begin towards the end of the month, indicating it’s going to be sometime over the next couple of weeks. Jolla has picked a busy time to show off the device, with Nokia ready to show a new Lumia phone on May 14, Google I/O on May 15, and CTIA (with the prospect of the Lumia 928 being announced) beginning on May 21. Despite Jolla taking orders in May, the phone isn’t expected to go on sale until after the summer.
We’d imagine now the new management team has been announced, the date for the launch event will soon follow.
