14 DAY TRIAL // The first Ubuntu phone has been shown at the Mobile Asia Expo 2014 by Meizu, the first company that decided to adopt the new operating system from Canonical.
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, announced a few months ago that Meizu and Bq would be the two companies to launch Ubuntu devices on the market. It looks like Meizu is the first one to do it, although the phone (MX3) is not yet ready to be sold.
Canonical announced that it was developing Ubuntu for phones at the beginning of 2013 and, two years later, the company will be ready to see its OS powering the first devices. It’s likely that Ubuntu phones will be available for purchase by the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, which is actually very good news for a system that has been built almost from scratch.
Unlike some of its direct competitors, like Firefox OS, Ubuntu doesn’t rely too much on web apps. This is one of the reasons why Firefox OS was launched faster on the market, but the two operating systems are aimed at different devices.
Ubuntu for phones is able to power high-end products, and that can be easily seen in this image of Meizu MX3, which is actually a powerful phone. The Bq version will also provide high-quality devices so, for now, it’s two for two.
