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Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal
- mh- 13y agoraised just over 40% of their goal - $12,809,906 / $32M. was certainly an interesting experiment edit: s/raised/were pledged/
- danpalmer 13y agoIndiegogo take the money and then refund if unsuccessful, so in a way they did raise the money, at least people were willing to part with it immediately.
- shurcooL 13y agoI asked a few developer-related questions about it in multiple places, but never got any answers. I might've bought it otherwise.
- danpalmer 13y agoWhat did you ask? I've been trying some Ubuntu Touch development recently and I found documentation for it to be ok.
- shurcooL 13y agoQuestions like these. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6181597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6181597
- socceroos 13y ago1) Yes. It is normal Ubuntu. You'd have to install some extra packages. 2) Yes, you can execute code in Desktop or Mobile - how you deliver the interface though would probably be done by either HTML or C++/QT Quick. 3) Yes, yes and yes. 4) It is a single environment with multiple interfaces. Plug it into a monitor and Unity Next will switch layout to Desktop - Plug it into a TV and it'll switch layout to Ubuntu for TV. All the underlying code is the same.
- general_failure 13y agoCan't say I am surprised. I wish ffos had done this.
- primelens 13y agoAh well - at least they tried and who knows, maybe not having to take on the hassle of hardware design and production will lead to a better Ubuntu release for existing top-end phones.
- AlexanderDhoore 13y agoAnd let's not forget that there's also a small linux desktop distro called Ubuntu. Maybe they could try and improve that? But that's just crazy right? Who still uses a laptop these days? Nobody!
- inthewind 13y agoYou could try: print count(nsaQuery.region('global').device('laptop').activity('-24hr')) ;)
- bbx 13y agoGenuine off-topic question: why didn't they go through Kickstarter, to potentially reach more users (although a $32M goal is huge)?
- lmartel 13y agoI believe Kickstarter requires more upfront for hardware projects (prototype, etc)
- exacube 13y agokickstarter takes a 5% cut, and indiegogo takes a 4% cut. the difference is $320,000, no small amount! i don't think kickstarter would've brought in anymore investors than putting it on indiegogo -- atleast not 320k worth. the edge probably already saturated to the set of users that would have crowdfunded for it.
- SteveDeFacto 13y agoI think they get to keep the money they raised even though they didn't meet the goal.
- moreati 13y agoThey don't, the campaign is Fixed Funding - once it failed to meet the target all backers got a full refund http://www.indiegogo.com/how-pricing-works-on-indiegogo http://www.indiegogo.com/how-pricing-works-on-indiegogo
- Aldo_MX 13y agoI liked the idea, but I refuse to use a phone without a landscape physical keyboard. Virtual keyboards are awful. All of them. They take too much screen real state away from me, yet they're small enough to make me struggle when trying to write something complex like my secure password... Swype and similar options are not an option either, because I write in different languages, and no matter how good the text prediction technology gets, the software is unable to predict in which language I'm trying to write, especially with short words. (I understand this is an unrealistic expectation, but still, expecting a person like me to consider this alternative is an unrealistic expectation). And I prefer not to say something about Voice Input... I swear I tried different options, but I simply can't... Is a physical keyboard too much to ask? :(
- zx2c4 13y agoLikewise. My N950 has an incredible keyboard -- it even have a proper control key -- but its operating system is completely dead in the water. There don't seem to be any modern Android phones that run on GSM and have physical keyboards. The Phonon Q has its SIM card soldered to the phone. I just ordered a Galaxy S Relay off ebay, which is last year's hardware and its physical keyboard is supposed to be kind of bad anyway. The state of physical keyboards in phones these days is terrible. The [overpriced] Blackberry Q10 is tempting for its hardware, and the fact that it comes with an Android runtime, but I don't really want to run QNX or have a smartphone running a bunch of obscure HTTP servers with pf managing the security between them -- or whatever bizarre model they're using. I wish Shuttleworth would have added the physical keyboard and advertised it as the natural progression of the N900/N950. I would have purchased a few of them.
- SteveDeFacto 13y agoDid they actually expect to raise 32 million dollars? None the less for a $700 smart phone...
- mariuolo 13y agoWhat now?
- fetbaffe 13y agoFirefox OS!
- eb0la 13y agoI seriously doubt FFOS can do something like the Ubuntu Edge in the next 2-3 commercial cycles. Canonical has been working for years on polishing a ARM distribution, and FFOS is just starting now and the amount of work needed to use a FFOS device as a computer is (today) non-trivial; plus you'll need some support from at least a hardware vendor, and carrier interested in selling the device/having the device in its own network
- reidrac 13y agoNot sure about this. Sure FFOS isn't perfect, but I have a ZTE Open in my desk right now... for me that's way ahead of Ubuntu Edge. It's too soon to tell, but looks like FFOS is happening. Right now.
- fetbaffe 13y agoI'm looking into doing a preorder of Geeksphone Peak+, which is their third model. Sure Geeksphone is more of a developer phone, but you also have ZTE Open as reidrac mentioned. Can I by a phone with Ubuntu Touch preinstalled? If Ubuntu Touch can make it, even better! I don't want that other Android crap.
- lmartel 13y agoSpeculation: they didn't want the money, they wanted the buzz. They didn't even have all their parts picked out, did they? But they'll be able to use this for leverage with manufacturers/investors/whatever. 12 million in "sales" in a month with no marketing (or product)!
- krichman 13y agoWhat if they picked a goal they purposely thought they wouldn't reach to test the market on a kickstarting platform and prevent a third-party marketplace from taking a percentage of sales?
- oracuk 13y agoI hope this isn't unfair but.. Does this mean that Canonical either don't believe enough in Ubuntu Edge to raise the $20m difference themselves or that Canonical do believe in it but are not able to raise $20m? I have to admit I am skeptical about the commitment of a large, established, company to a product that they are not willing to put their own skin in the game to develop. However, I can understand and have participated in crowd-funding for smaller companies who are trying to play a bigger game. I just wonder which one Canonical is.
- danpalmer 13y agoI believe the point of the campaign was not to raise the $32m they needed, they have enough money to do it themselves. The point was to prove to the mobile/carrier industry that there is $32m worth of demand for a change in the way the industry works. With $12m raised, I think they made a significant step towards that, even if they didn't finish it.
- exacube 13y agohow much does canonical make in profits per year? i don't think enough to spend its capital to enter a new market, on a space they have little experience in. crowdfunding would atleast give them an idea on the demand for Edge, and help generate buzz in the process. of course, if they were confident enough that there was demand for Edge, they would've funded it themselves.
- liljimmytables 13y agoI don't think it's unfair, IIRC they were quite explicit about the fact that they were using crowdfunding as a way to measure the market. They would quite definitely have had to "put their own skin in the game" (I want to know what games you've been playing) alongside the crowd funds, but now they know that there isn't a keen enough market outside of nerds and they haven't wasted their money. As a nerd I'm disappointed that the product won't make it to the market, but as a businessman I think they've found a sane way to determine what punters are prepared to unfold their wallets for.
- oracuk 13y ago
- fridek 13y agoUnrealistic goal, crazy prize for specs that should be widely available when phone is finally shipped after almost a year. I wasn't that surprising :)
- HipstaJules 13y agoYou totally got it
- pavlov 13y agoI don't need another phone but I like the project, so I gave my money once it became clear that they're not going to reach the $32 million goal. How IndieGogo works is that they charge the money immediately but refund it if the campaign doesn't reach its goal. So basically I lent $725 to IndieGogo for a week. Expressing support for Ubuntu in "real money" won't get cheaper than this!
- harrytuttle 13y agoSo IndieGogo works by pocketing the interest rather than you. Not a bad business model.
- bbrks 13y agoOr taking a nice 4%[1] cut if it does succeed. [1] http://www.indiegogo.com/how-pricing-works-on-indiegogo http://www.indiegogo.com/how-pricing-works-on-indiegogo
- harrytuttle 13y agoEven better. Interest and commission. I genuinely wish I'd thought of it.
- drill_sarge 13y agoLooked nice but for me it was just too expensive. I don't pay 700 bucks for a phone. Even the OS is interesting and everything but in the end it's just a phone for me.
- martin-adams 13y ago$32 mil is a lot to aim for, but their goal was to see if there is an marketplace for cutting edge technology where innovation can really thrive. If you lowered the threshold then it starts to lose what they set out to prove - is the industry too scared to innovate because they will lose their market share. They have proved there is a market for £12 mil on a product that is only a concept at this stage. Had this product been in stores today I believe they would have sold far more than $32 mil, both from the immediate availability but also increased exposure. I am looking forward to seeing the Ubuntu phones come. It shouldn't be seen as a failure as to Canonical, it was an experiment. They tested to see if people would go wild for something like this and now they know that people do want it, but it's not as straightforward as they now need to get the mainstream manufacturers on board and sell a product, not a concept. At least that's my take on it.
- mercurial 13y agoI don't know. I believe that "phones that can replace a computer" are years away still. So you are left with a Linux phone, and I'd bet the Jolla people to get it right. Also, I haven't tried Ubuntu Touch but the little I've seen of Unity hasn't really blown me away.
- dalek_cannes 13y agoI agree. Is this a phone that I can: 1. Hold to my ear when a call arrives, without unplugging the video cable to my screen? 2. Wave around without fear of it falling and shattering to bits, taking most of my digital life with it (unless I'm using cloud/NSA)?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Dowbell 13y agoI hope they try again maybe not as high as 32million but like 18million maybe next year but really I would like the phone to be manufactured not just a limited run
- Dowbell 13y agoNexus 5 I hope we been able to run the software they had planned for Ubuntu Edge. If thats true I would buy a Nexus 5 until they make a Ubuntu Edge