Jolla said it is “looking to expand our regional licensing strategy to other markets, in particular BRICS countries” following recent efforts to boost its platform in Russia.

In an open letter, Sami Pienimaki, CEO, said Jolla’s Russian efforts are “the first concrete case” for its efforts to drive adoption of its Sailfish platform in this way, and “the massive China market is a key strategic opportunity for Jolla this year, which we’ll pursue strongly”.

The executive also said there is interest from the Middle East and Africa (although it did not update on a previously-announced African effort), and Latin America.

“The political movements of the world seem to set the scene in many ways for 2017, and we expect those movements to enable further business opportunities for the only independent mobile OS, Sailfish,” he continued.

With regard to Russia, the executive said by working with a local partner, it “established a fully working and professional contribution model”, where the Russian Sailfish developers contribute code back to the common Sailfish OS, which Jolla maintains independently.

“This also means that Sailfish OS has got a new partner who invests to the development of the code, and all users of Sailfish OS will benefit of it. It is in the interest of all parties to develop and maintain compatibility of one Sailfish OS and not to create forks,” he said.

After it previously-reported financial woes, Pienimaki said “we are now a slightly smaller company than before but with the stronger-than-ever Sailfish community the results have been significant”.

He pointed to new community ports, progress with Sailfish 64-bit, and work in translating new Sailfish releases.

Tablet refunds
Pienimaki also said Jolla is “committed to making the second round of refunds for Jolla Tablet, as soon as our financial situation permits”. However, he also said Jolla is “not quite there yet”.

Having axed its tablet project, Jolla said it would refund buyers in two tranches, one of which has already taken place.