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I want to own and work on an Ubuntu Touch phone, but they are making it very hard for me. I don't live in China or in Europe. I can purchase an MX4 within a wal
by beagle3 11y ago
I want to own and work on an Ubuntu Touch phone, but they are making it very hard for me. I don't live in China or in Europe. I can purchase an MX4 within a walking distance of my home, but it is an Android version, potentially bootlocked (vendor says some of their shipments are, some aren't, and they are not willing to accept a return in case mine is bootlocked) -- and even if it isn't, there's no sanctioned tool out there to install it.
- vegabook 11y agoMy sense is this is kind of a beta programme and that they want to get it right before putting it into US, where a much fiercer press in general would kill it at the starting gates if it's not 100% ready. Moreover the size of the US market means they need to line up distribution partners and a credible inventory of device stock, both things requiring resources and cred, which they can get by "booting" the business model in Europe/China.
- kriro 11y agoSeems to me the major reason is that the hardware manufacturers are from Spain (BQ) and China (Meizu). There might also be license/compliance issues or software patent problems that hold up a US release. And my guess would be that the Chinese smart phone market is actually bigger than the US one, especially for the price point of these phones (and Europe is probably not that far behind the US).
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoI flashed Ubuntu Touch on top of an LG Nexus 4 I got for around ~$95. That's their main development target, and it works well.