Jolla will reveal its MeeGo-based Sailfish OS on November 21

The day we'll finally be able to see what Jolla has been working on for the last year and a half is getting closer and closer. Jolla Mobile has announced that it will showcase its first handset by the end of the year, and its MeeGo-based Sailfish OS on November 21.

In fact, there have been some interesting developments around that Sailfish OS. It turns out that Jolla has founded a new Sailfish software alliance, the members of which are still undisclosed. However, this way, Jolla has managed to raise about $259 million that will go towards the development of the software. Now, on top of that Sailfish OS, which will include underlying MeeGo code, as well as additional features added by Jolla, the manufacturer will also add its own Jolla UI, which will be present in Jolla's smartphones. This way, customers will get a unique Jolla user experience with its phones.

Interestingly, the latest efforts of the developers have been thrown at "the scalability and user experience based on MeeGo in order to be able to support multiple different device categories," which hints that the company might have plans to use the OS for other devices like tablets.

The new OS and interface will be presented in Finland, at the Slush start-up conference, taking place on November 21-22. Perhaps the even more exciting news is that Jolla will actually unveil its pilot device by the end of this year, along with its release date. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the phone will be ready to go on sale for the Holiday season, but who knows, miracles happen every day.

Here's the full Jolla release:

A date and place has been set to reveal the new Jolla smartphone user interface and deliver the Jolla developer story and SDK. Jolla Ltd. will demonstrate the Jolla user interface, based on the recently announced Sailfish alliance OS, at the Slush event in Helsinki, Finland on 21-22 November. Jolla is very excited to be able to share the user interface, and talk about the Jolla SDK and application ecosystem with the developers. Jolla will publish the device information, ID and expected availability before Christmas.

Peter Vesterbacka, a founder of Slush: “Slush has grown up to be the biggest entrepreneurship event in Northern Europe. It’s great to see hot new startups like Jolla use Slush as the venue for their major announcements. New business creation and innovation is alive and kicking at Slush and in the region”.

Mikko Kuusi, CEO of Startup Sauna: “Jolla is a great example of what happens, when you combine the extreme technical talent found in Finland with the right attitude and ambition level of companies like Rovio.”

In addition, Jolla will be hosting a separate, in-depth session to showcase the user interface, and a press Q&A session. The Jolla user interface will be incorporated into the previously announced Sailfish alliance software. Jolla has been working on the scalability and user experience based on MeeGo in order to be able to support multiple different device categories. This development has now reached a point that Jolla can showcase the user interface, its differentiation from the existing mobile UI’s and its possibilities as part of the Sailfish alliance.

Jussi Hurmola, CEO of Jolla: “I’m thrilled to finally be able to show the user interface we have been working on, and it will be exciting to open the developer story with SDK and applications to the public.”