Jolla signs distribution deal with D.Phone, China’s largest phone retailer

By: Asim on 3:10 PM

Jolla, the small startup company composed of former Nokia engineers who worked on Maemo/MeeGo and who want to bring their own device to market, has just announced via Twitter that they’ve signed their first sales deal. Since Jolla doesn’t have an official website yet there’s sadly no press release we can link to, but somehow the Finnish website Androidistica got their hands on the following:

Jolla Ltd. and China’s Largest Smartphone Retail Chain D.Phone Sign Product Sales Agreement
Jolla Ltd., a rising Finnish smartphone product company, has signed a Sales and Distribution agreement with D.Phone Group, the largest mobile phones retail chain in China. Together the companies have a shared target to reach significant sales volumes in China’s 150 million smartphone market. The agreement is such that D.Phone will start sales and distribution of Jolla smartphones in China, utilising D.Phone’s vast network of over 2,000 retail stores to reach the Chinese consumers.
Mr. Donghai Liu, Founder and CEO of D.Phone Group: “We see great potential for Jolla as a new player in the Chinese smartphone market with Jolla’s fresh and unique user experience. Together with Jolla our aim is to reach significant sales volumes.”
Dr. Antti Saarnio, Chairman of Jolla Ltd.: “China has the largest and most rapidly expanding smartphone market in the world. This agreement with D.Phone is a major step in Jolla’s journey towards becoming a significant player in the global smartphone market.”
Jolla Ltd. is an independent Finland based smartphone product company that will
reveal its first product later this year. Jolla was founded in 2011 by a team of former Nokia mobile industry professionals. The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland and has an R&D office in Tampere, Finland.
D.Phone is China’s largest chain retailer of mobile phones and accessories with extensive nationwide retail coverage of over 2,000 outlets across the country. D.Phone is a strategic partner with China Mobile, China Telecom and China
Unicom.

It’s kind of funny that the first sentence says Jolla is a “rising Finnish smartphone product company”, yet in the second to last paragraph it says that the company will “reveal its first product later this year”. How can it be rising if sales haven’t even started yet?
Anyway, expect to hear more about Jolla over the next few months. Who will sell their phone in Europe? In America? What’s their new UI all about? What specs will their first device have? How much will it cost?
There are many unanswered questions.