

Ubuntu Edge: how many phones were really ordered - and the mistakes - areski
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/27/ubuntu-edge-phones-data

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samstokes
From the article:

 _The project didn 't actually _raise* any money; a total of $12.2m was
pledged, but none would be charged against anyone's credit card (not even the
usual few percent from a failed project) under a special arrangement with
IndieGoGo.*

Not true, as far as I understand it. Certainly my bank statement showed a
transaction, and a subsequent refund.

I believe the article is correct in that Canonical never saw that money - I
understand Indiegogo held onto it until the refund - but it was certainly
charged.

~~~
buro9
That's actually one of the things that stopped me from ordering an Edge.

I just don't have the cashflow to leave ~£500 in someone else's hands for a
lengthy period of time.

Would've been happy with a deposit amount and a final bill before dispatch.
But when you're paying yourself bare minimum at a startup, the funds just
aren't there in my personal finances to tie up a quite significant amount for
so long and at relatively short notice.

~~~
misnome
But this is misunderstanding the point of kickstarter et al - although it may
feel like you are just preordering, you are not - and actually funding the
development (which could go wrong, and never get anything). It's why people
shouldn't be too annoyed/upset if they don't get their items first/cheapest.

~~~
buro9
The headline would suggest that everyone believed this was pre-ordering. Hence
the "How many phones were ordered".

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ozim
It was not campain aimed to make Edge. It was marketing and publicity stunt by
Canonical to have some data to feed to vendors which supply them with stuff to
make Ubuntu phone. It was something like prototype car to show off at
exhibition, just to draw attention. They make numbers bigger because that is
the main reason behind this campain. Now they have some point of reference,
and they can show to suppliers that they are serious. Even if it was 15.000
Edges they know that they have audience. Besides IndieGoGo made couple of
dollars on those pledged money as samstokes wrote, put couple of mils
(specially not yours) in bank and get the percents, nice.

------
JohnLBevan
Has anyone considered a SCRUM funding model? i.e. Similar to how Patreon's
used to fund ongoing deliverables from YouTube artists (among others) the team
could have patrons sign up to pay a smaller amount on a fortnightly basis,
with the development team announcing their goal for that sprint, then taking
funding on delivery. This gives patrons the option to back out further down
the project if things go off course/change, thus reducing risk in committing
to a failing project, whilst allowing other patrons to sign up down the line
as the project starts to look increasingly feasible. Optionally small awards
could be given per pledge, whilst larger rewards (e.g. your own phone) given
to those who've given a certain amount by the end of the project / the pledged
amounts could be discounted from the resulting phone's price.

------
justincormack
Apparently Richard Stallman in the comments saying that Canonical refused to
make it a completetly free software platform...

~~~
bru
I think that this is a strategic error from Canonical: a lot of people would
like a truly free alternative to Android phones (with open hardware), and this
could have been an opportunity to get them to support Edge. Canonical missed
it IMHO.

See Mark Shuttleworth AMA:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1j166z/hi_im_mark_shut...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1j166z/hi_im_mark_shuttleworth_founder_of_ubuntu/cba2wga?context=1)

~~~
pdpi
> I think that this is a strategic error from Canonical: a lot of people would
> like a truly free alternative to Android phones (with open hardware), and
> this could have been an opportunity to get them to support Edge. Canonical
> missed it IMHO.

I think you underestimate the echo chamber effect. The number of people who
care about FOSS is minuscule, and marketing the Edge to that crowd would
dilute the marketing message for everyone else.

~~~
pessimizer
For the people who care about FOSS you wouldn't have to market that feature,
just state it. Also, the people who care about FOSS are loud, and influence
people who don't care about FOSS.

I think you underestimate the appealing to as many disparate influential
groups as possible effect.

~~~
Shorel
Yeah, that's the reason most smartphones are Android and iOS.

/sarcasm

------
ohwp
Estimations are that Jolla is going to produce a batch of 50,000 units.
[http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/21/jolla-closes-first-pre-
sale...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/21/jolla-closes-first-pre-sales/)

So I think it's strange Canonical didn't make this happen.

------
hmottestad
It would have been nice if they had some graphs showing projects that reached
their goals early.

What would have happened if Ubuntu had set the goal at 1 million $? Then most
of the backers would have certainty when they backed the project since they
knew it would succeed in getting funded!

Maybe this would have led to 32 million, maybe not.

~~~
archangel_one
There are significant fixed costs, you can't just divide the required goal by
32 to produce 1/32 of the number of phones. I'd guess that $1M wouldn't be
enough to even produce _one_ of those phones.

~~~
hmottestad
That is a downside yes.

The question still remains. Would more people have pledged knowing that the
project would get funded?

Essentially this would be like preordering it.

~~~
freehunter
I've backed Kickstarters only after they've already reached their goal, just
for the sake of preordering the product.

Yes, Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are not meant to be storefronts and I might be
a bad citizen for treating it as such, but the incentive is there. If the
developers are going to treat these fundraisers as a place to sell a product,
I'm going to use these fundraisers as a place to buy a product. Especially in
cases where the Kickstarter product is significantly less than the price of
the product when it hits retail. If you tell me I can "buy" your product for
$8 on Kickstarter and get the product in the mail weeks before it's officially
for sale, or I could wait longer and buy it for $20, what do you expect me to
do?

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nhangen
This is quite nitpicky. A worthless debate over semantics.

