Jolla named Indian smartphone player Intex as its first Sailfish OS licensing partner, bringing products powered by Sailfish OS to market later this year.

As part of its emerging markets strategy, Jolla also announced the formation of Sailfish India, described as a “regional mobile ecosystem for India”, with members including Internet and online sales companies Times Internet and Snapdeal.

The aim is for Sailfish India to develop a “unique Indian mobile ecosystem”, which will lead to greater differentiation in the market with “more choices for consumers, higher user satisfaction and better revenue for local businesses”. Further partners will be announced later.

Antti Saarnio, executive chairman of Jolla, said: “We have seen a lot of interest among Indian device vendors, digital media houses, and mobile operators, and they all are very keen to work with an alternative to the currently dominating mobile operating systems. India deserves its own regional mobile ecosystem, an open platform, which supports local Indian services and businesses.”

Sailfish OS offers “PartnerSpace”, a premium location directly in the OS for various local services. “With specific revenue sharing models it can support local businesses and services in unseen ways,” the company said.

Jolla has recently announced Sailfish OS efforts for Africa, and is picking up support in Russia.

The company said that the introduction of Sailfish 2.0 means it is set to licence the OS to device vendors globally. It has created a range of optimised hardware platforms using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200, 600 and 800-series silicon, “offering 4G LTE to everyone in all price ranges”.

Jolla recently announced a strategy to focus on the development and licensing of the platform, away from its own devices activity.