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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's Jolla, a group of ex-Nokia software developers, announced a plan to launch a crowd-sourced tablet computer just a day after Nokia said it was reviving its consumer brand by entering the tablet market.
Jolla was founded by Nokia's former MeeGo software team that was shut down after the Finnish flagship company decided to switch to Microsoft's Windows Phone software in 2011. Jolla unveiled its first smartphone last year.
The new tablet, due to come out in the second quarter of next year, will run on the company's open operating system called Sailfish, which is developed from Meego.
Just a few hours after Jolla's announcement, the project had raised more than $500,000 (319,141 pounds) on crowd-funding platform Indiegogo. The company had been seeking funds of just $380,000.
"We are an operating system company, and this is a tablet to our fans," Jolla's board chairman Antti Saarnio told Helsingin Sanomat newspaper's online edition.
Nokia, which sold its ailing phones and devices business to Microsoft earlier this year, on Tuesday announced a new brand-licensed Android tablet.
Jolla will use a subcontractor to manufacture its tablet, as it does for the mobile phones it sells. Early contributors would get the tablet for a price of $189, it said.
Apple last month reported that sales of iPad, which helped launch the mainstream tablet market in 2010, have slid for three consecutive quarters.
(Reporting By Anna Ercanbrack, Writing by Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Crispian Balmer)