From the launch of Jolla smartphone, to the opening of Jolla Harbour (accepting apps to Jolla Store), to the recent introduction of the Jolla tablet, our community members have asked for a Developer Program they can participate in. This demand for a Developer Program certainly did not go unnoticed!
Already about a year ago, we introduced the community beta (cbeta) group as an endeavor to collect feedback from our community. We take this opportunity to thank our cbeta members for making this a success by giving us honest feedback on how each release candidate is perceived!
In addition we’ve been paving the road for a smoother developer experience every step of the way. Some of our efforts have included: accepting more APIs for Harbour, regular Sailfish OS and open source collaboration meetings, renewing Sailfish OS portal at sailfishos.org, and also bringing the missing Silica documentation back.
Introducing the Jolla Tablet Developer Device loan program
We are now ready to take the next step in our Developer Program, and pilot a developer program for the Jolla Tablet! We have decided to make the pilot phase invite-only, to keep the program focused and manageable as we start it off.
We aim for an Unlike Developer Program, fitting the unique needs of our community. The developers who will be getting their personal invitations within the next few weeks are hand-picked based on their technical contributions to Sailfish OS. These are active community members (including current cbeta members), and we trust that they will provide appropriate feedback during the pilot to serve the program expansion in the future.
What we are piloting now is the Jolla Tablet Developer Device loan program. Within the program we will ship a number of loan devices to selected developers by the end of June, along with early access SDK and tablet Software Release(s). As the SDK and tablet software releases aren’t public yet, the devices and software will be given out for selected developers under a common Product Loan Agreement (PLA).
In return, we expect feedback in the form of failure reports and suggestions for better process. We are taking this step by step, so please be patient. We will see how it goes and evaluate what else we can provide or what is needed from the developer community.
If you do not receive an invitation for the program pilot, please do not worry and bear with us for a little longer. We will share info about future opportunities to join the Developer Program as it grows. Watch this space!
happy to read this. if you need some testers too, think about me.
Thanks for the progress report. Is it possible to tell us what display will be used?
How could I have been an active developer contributing to Sailfish OS? I’ve got 11 applications (once best sellers on MeeGo/Symbian and now also on BB10) ported to Sailfish OS a long time ago, none of which I could have released due to no support in the Harbour for the APIs they use, and due to no support for paid apps. Eleven high quality apps, unreleased for 2 years. Also, nearly two years ago I emailed Jolla several times and offered all my help, e.g. preparing localizations/translations of the OS and documentation in my native language, or anything else you might need – no one has ever replied.
Summing up, I was PREVENTED from being able to contribute to Sailfish OS. And now, due to this, I will not get invited to the Developer Program, and therefore I will be further prevented from finally being able to start supporting the platform with my applications. Which is very sad.
Ahoy, please send mail to developer-care@jolla.com so we can check what APIs are still blocked. Based on your previous conversation with several sailors at least some should be open already. We are working to get Flattr support in Harbour. We are also working to get community pootle available for Sailfish OS and apps translations. You can find more information from Development Roadmap.
Does this mean the release date for the jolla tablet will be pushed back even further now? Or can we still expect for a late July send off for early backers ?
Hi talonz666. We are still aiming to start the Jolla Tablet shipments to Indiegogo backers by the end of July. This does not postpone the schedule.
Exciting stuff!
any devices reserved for hw devs? indication when these will be shipped?
We will ship developer devices by end of June.
Still starting ‘soon’? 🙂
As we earlier communicated [0] we have had a bumpy road with the display development for the Jolla Tablet. As we see the display is one of the most crucial quality factors of the product we want to take this with extra care. The integration challenges continue with the display, which will impact the developer device program device sending schedule. We are working together with our ODM to solve this and hope to start the program soon!
[0] https://blog.jolla.com/jolla-iteration-4/
For Chinese translation of this post pls check here: http://tomorrow.becomes.today/jolla/blog/Jolla-Tablet-Developer-Device-loan-program-starting-soon/
中文翻译请戳这里: http://tomorrow.becomes.today/jolla/blog/Jolla-Tablet-Developer-Device-loan-program-starting-soon/
So,how many sailors will be invited
Enough to get as wide perspective as possible and still be able to evaluate the pilot.
Will there be some kind of DRM agreement or can we look forward for videos of Jolla tablet? =)
Developers will get early access to SW releases and they will have a developer device, therefore they need to sign NDA (Non-disclosure agreement).