

Ubuntu Phone Will Be A Big Success, Even If It Never Happens - madmaze
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sharifsakr/2013/08/08/crowdfunded-ubuntu-phone-will-be-a-big-success-even-if-it-never-happens/

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auganov
tl;dr Some reputational gain [for Canonical] is guaranteed. Bloomberg will
portray itself as a "forward-thinking company" and is actually better off not
getting the 100 phones. "To a significant degree, this episode has already
succeeded in being disruptive, in proving that smaller players have new ways
of tackling the status quo, and in acting as a very direct and powerful piece
of market research for Canonical. "

Didn't enjoy the article. Basically wraps the actual argument in 1000 words to
make it seem smarter.

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berlinbrown
I am pissed off. I am a life long linux user and Ubuntu has done great work.

I am really starting to see Ubuntu used for the desktop in various companies.

But nobody gives a shit enough to invest in their technologies. I think edge
is a great idea. I will buy (once the phone is available). That is my
contribution.

~~~
neilxdsouza
In case Ubuntu folks are reading this.

I am from India, working on our startup - our running costs are USD 500 per
month, thats what we are running on. If I was in a regular job, I would surely
contribute to your campaign, but I cant afford it.

If I want to download Ubuntu Desktop, you are asking for donations, which I
would love to give, but are taking payments through Paypal. You need to setup
a payment gateway here in India - use the same systems we use to top up our
mobile phones, so we can contribute to you, instead of going through Paypal
(because I am not credit worthy, and there are govt rules too).

We might not be able to make big donations, but India has 1 billion people,
and I am sure, India has quite a few Ubuntu users, and I am definitely a Happy
one.

~~~
fedvasu
yeah,me too! I would gladly donate 0.5K to 1K rupees!(if it was as easy as
paying for pizza)

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pmarca
Forbes.com: Defining success down since 2013 :-).

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apapli
Sale: Global brand exposure, requires an $80,000 down payment, will be
refunded in full minus PayPal fees at the end of the campaign.

Why aren't more big companies seeing this?

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sputknick
Can someone explain to me why this has to be a hardware project? Why can't
they just make this an OS project and load it on whatever high end phone
exists in 2014? Hardware falls outside of Canonical's core competency, and as
such seems like an inconvenience.

~~~
lukifer
I've been pretty unimpressed with the build quality and general aesthetic of
the majority of Android smartphones. (I'm not anticipating Ubuntu on iPhone
will ever be a viable option.) The Edge looks good, and (hopefully) will feel
good in hand.

The buttonless interface is also significant: every other phone has physical
and/or touch buttons below, which would be superfluous. Ubuntu phones are
meant to be oriented around edge swipes as virtual "buttons", with the few
actual buttons being only on the top and sides.

The project is most certainly a gamble, both for buyers and Canonical. But I
think it's a worthwhile one for both parties. Note that their goal is to
release a new "concept phone" once per year; they clearly want to turn mobile
hardware into a core competency, even if they're bound to have a hard time
keeping up with Samsung and Apple.

~~~
eterm
Touch volume buttons are very very useful, the ability to control volume just
by feel is something that should not be dismissed for the sake of a misguided
minimalism.

A physical "home" button is also useful for when a phone starts to hang/go
slow. If pressing the physical button has no effect then you press the
physical on/off button, if that has no effect you power cycle the phone.

If those first steps are software interrupts you cannot trust them when
software starts to hang, so the only satisfactory option is to powercycle,
which is less useful than being able to just get back to a home screen where
the phone can better recover from whatever was causing the hanging.

~~~
lukifer
The Edge has physical volume buttons on the side. We'll see if the lack of a
Home button ends up affecting the UX or not; it depends on the responsiveness
and resiliency of the OS.

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MayankGoyal
They're going to refund the people who paid a higher price than $695 - isn't
that going to lower the funding amount even if it hits the target?

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wowaname
Ubuntu is becoming the FOSS Google and trying to outreach its goal. Not saying
it's bad; I'm just skeptical on how it will work out.

