Ubuntu Smart Phone Makers Trying To Crowdfund $32M

Will They Get $32M in 30 Days?

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 13.4%
  • No

    Votes: 161 86.6%

  • Total voters
    186
I applaud them for what looks like a great product/platform. But $32M in 31 days? Good luck.
 
I'll give them credit for having reasonable differences in pledge levels (rather than $5 at a time like everyone else) but man, I thought these guys were non-profit? $800 for a smart phone is worse than Apple.
 
No. They're too late to the game with everyone knowing only three names: Android, iOS, and Blackberry. In order for this to be successful, the average "so three guys walk in to a Best Buy..." type people would have to know exactly what Ubuntu is and what the benefit would be. Too hard to sell the concept to the consumer gen-pop right now.
 
I'll give them credit for having reasonable differences in pledge levels (rather than $5 at a time like everyone else) but man, I thought these guys were non-profit? $800 for a smart phone is worse than Apple.

Apple charges $849~ for their 64GB. Ubuntu's has 128GB per the video.

Apple produces millions of phones, Ubuntu is looking at 40,000 phones.

The Ubuntu devices will have multiple radios for data connection.

None of this matters because we don't know how the device will actually perform. I wish Ubuntu would instead find a flagship phone they like and go from there. Moto X, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, etc.
 
Not a chance. I really doubt they will make a good phone anyway. Huge multi billion dollar corps cant even do smartphones right I have no faith they will.
 
Most FOSS people use free software because they don't have money. Asking for money on Kickstarter is like asking a bucket of pears to donate kidney beans for the local Walk Across America 24-Hour Marathon run.
 
I wonder if the updating to a new release will be as shady as it is on a desktop. I like ubuntu but, man, upgrades can be painful.
 
No. They're too late to the game with everyone knowing only three names: Android, iOS, and Blackberry. In order for this to be successful, the average "so three guys walk in to a Best Buy..." type people would have to know exactly what Ubuntu is and what the benefit would be. Too hard to sell the concept to the consumer gen-pop right now.

Android, iOS and Windows phone perhaps. I don't know anyone who would deliberately buy themselves Blackberries anymore,
 
No. They're too late to the game with everyone knowing only three names: Android, iOS, and Blackberry. In order for this to be successful, the average "so three guys walk in to a Best Buy..." type people would have to know exactly what Ubuntu is and what the benefit would be. Too hard to sell the concept to the consumer gen-pop right now.

WHat is this blackberry you speak of?
 
Apple charges $849~ for their 64GB. Ubuntu's has 128GB per the video.

Apple produces millions of phones, Ubuntu is looking at 40,000 phones.

The Ubuntu devices will have multiple radios for data connection.

None of this matters because we don't know how the device will actually perform. I wish Ubuntu would instead find a flagship phone they like and go from there. Moto X, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, etc.

Not a fan of Apple but I'll point out a few more important differences.

Apple has completed products, Ubuntu does not.
Apple product has detailed specs, Ubuntu does not.
Apple paid to build the phones they want you to buy, Ubuntu wants you to pay to build it
 
$1.07 million/day average they have to rake in. $1,131,292 as of this post. Interesting to see if they can hold strong the entire run.
 
Not a fan of Apple but I'll point out a few more important differences.

Apple has completed products, Ubuntu does not.
Apple product has detailed specs, Ubuntu does not.
Apple paid to build the phones they want you to buy, Ubuntu wants you to pay to build it

And where pray tell did that money to pay to have smartphones built come to Apple from? The funding fairy?
 
And where pray tell did that money to pay to have smartphones built come to Apple from? The funding fairy?

by selling other products before that. His point is that Apple didn't lean on consumers for R&D funding. They used their profits to fund it.
 
But it's got a Sapphire screen!......
/jk

I say they make it, people will buy anything :D
 
this isn't for mass market
they are only producing them for backers seems like
and make it yearly thing if this flys
 
Most FOSS people use free software because they don't have money. Asking for money on Kickstarter is like asking a bucket of pears to donate kidney beans for the local Walk Across America 24-Hour Marathon run.

Most users have money but refuse to actually purchase software. By going "open source", they are "sticking it to the man" (ie Microsoft).
:rolleyes:
 
It's a good concept. It'd be nice to dock, use your phone as a PC, and then undock and have access to whatever. That's a lot of money to crowdfund though. Phone looks a bit thick in the concept shot but I've never cared about the thickness much.
 
Most users have money but refuse to actually purchase software. By going "open source", they are "sticking it to the man" (ie Microsoft).
:rolleyes:

Bet they're growing their own food to stick it to the man too.
 
From a design standpoint, it certainly looks like a phone I'd like to own (I really do like the style), and it can boot Android, so if I don't like Ubuntu, well, I know there's something that I do like that can be loaded.
 
Why not just write drivers for existing phones.

New phones are released every 6 months. That is why. They'd never be able to keep up with the hardware releases to get drivers stable in time for people to care. By the time they got stable Galaxy Note 2 drivers out, the Note 4 would hitting shelves.
 
Damn it, Ubuntu. Come on guys. This is going about it all wrong. First of all, Ubuntu needs to clean house with their fucking spyware bullshit first - it is a big blight on the face of Linux users. Forget their other questionable decisions; they need to eliminate the "online websearch from the desktop without users opting in", "Amazon affiliate bound to queries without opt-in" and "routing searches and whatnot through Ubuntu's servers without opt-in". This harms Ubuntu and Linux as a whole. Gurus who would otherwise use Ubuntu will not deal with the privacy violations, and the Linux community should not have the premiere desktop distro (ie The one that Steam and all the others who have recently started to support Linux choose as their test platform) afflicted with adware/spyware bullshit - it makes it harder to get Joe Intermediate User to switch over. Linux used to have the "We respect your privacy and make decisions that benefit the users first, and you can even verify them! We're not like those other guys who want to monetize everything without your knowledge, jam you into a bubble, and leech away" marketing point, but Canonical undermines that by leaving this Google-level bullshit installed by default.

Now they want to extend that BS to a phone? Come on. Fix the problems that exist first. I know that Canonical needs to make money somehow, but at least be up front about it. It doensn't take much to make a menu when you're configuring that says "Do you want the Unity Desktop Search to search locally on your PC, or include Internet resources as well?" and "Canonical needs to make some money to keep bringing this Free and Open Source operating system to you. Would you like to help us by enabling the Amazon search lens affiliate? This means when you search through your desktop and purchase things on Amazon, Canonical gets a little reward. Your privacy will be protected - we can't see what you bought, and it doesn't in any way change the items you see. Thanks for helping us bring you a better Ubuntu!" Etc...

Then, they should concentrate on rolling out a high quality, easy to use Ubuntu for Phone distro that can be installed on existing hardware. Trying to fund this whole thing to partner with exclusive hardware is not yet where to go. Drum up some popularity by getting Android users to install UbuPhone and say "Wow, this is great"! THEN perhaps you can sell hardware pre-installed. Asking for a fortune to make a Version 1 of the software on exclusive hardware, which isn't going to reach mass sales and may have quality issues, isn't a good way to go. Oh, and if Ubuntu Phone can't even run Android applications natively, don't even bother. Nobody wants another platform that can't run existing apps.
 
People were fleeing Ubuntu before Unity came along, hoss...

Maybe so. But for a lot of people Unity was the last straw.
Real computer users want functionality and reliability; not shiny buttons and worthless slippery menus that does NOT making locating files easier.
 
Damn it, Ubuntu. Come on guys. This is going about it all wrong. First of all, Ubuntu needs to clean house with their fucking spyware bullshit first - it is a big blight on the face of Linux users. Forget their other questionable decisions; they need to eliminate the "online websearch from the desktop without users opting in", "Amazon affiliate bound to queries without opt-in" and "routing searches and whatnot through Ubuntu's servers without opt-in". This harms Ubuntu and Linux as a whole. Gurus who would otherwise use Ubuntu will not deal with the privacy violations, and the Linux community should not have the premiere desktop distro (ie The one that Steam and all the others who have recently started to support Linux choose as their test platform) afflicted with adware/spyware bullshit - it makes it harder to get Joe Intermediate User to switch over. Linux used to have the "We respect your privacy and make decisions that benefit the users first, and you can even verify them! We're not like those other guys who want to monetize everything without your knowledge, jam you into a bubble, and leech away" marketing point, but Canonical undermines that by leaving this Google-level bullshit installed by default.

Now they want to extend that BS to a phone? Come on. Fix the problems that exist first. I know that Canonical needs to make money somehow, but at least be up front about it. It doensn't take much to make a menu when you're configuring that says "Do you want the Unity Desktop Search to search locally on your PC, or include Internet resources as well?" and "Canonical needs to make some money to keep bringing this Free and Open Source operating system to you. Would you like to help us by enabling the Amazon search lens affiliate? This means when you search through your desktop and purchase things on Amazon, Canonical gets a little reward. Your privacy will be protected - we can't see what you bought, and it doesn't in any way change the items you see. Thanks for helping us bring you a better Ubuntu!" Etc...

Then, they should concentrate on rolling out a high quality, easy to use Ubuntu for Phone distro that can be installed on existing hardware. Trying to fund this whole thing to partner with exclusive hardware is not yet where to go. Drum up some popularity by getting Android users to install UbuPhone and say "Wow, this is great"! THEN perhaps you can sell hardware pre-installed. Asking for a fortune to make a Version 1 of the software on exclusive hardware, which isn't going to reach mass sales and may have quality issues, isn't a good way to go. Oh, and if Ubuntu Phone can't even run Android applications natively, don't even bother. Nobody wants another platform that can't run existing apps.

You realize that Ubuntu's tendency of not fixing problems and bugginess by adding new features no one asks for dates back...well...it is an Ubuntu tradition, and it isn't changing.
 
They're really charging $840 dollars for this thing? I can't believe it. Hell, the $600 one day price is too high. If they can't even come down to the Nexus4 pricing level for crowdfunding backers that doesn't bode well. Props to them for going for high end hardware, but if you want to beat out Apple and Google, you have to compete on price as well. You're asking people to take a chance on something and help you build the damn thing, but charging a premium? If they need volume as much as they claim, then they really should lower the damn price.
 
here's quote from Mark Shuttleworth
The Ubuntu Edge is a pioneering device designed to drive innovation in the mobile industry. Like Formula 1 for the car industry, Ubuntu Edge is a testbed for cutting-edge technologies, accelerating their adoption and driving them down into the mainstream
 
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