14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical announced a couple of days ago a new operating system that would be available for smartphones, but they haven't really pointed out what devices will be able to run it.
If Canonical wants Ubuntu for smartphones to be widely adopted, they will have to make it clear which devices can run it.
The demonstrations were made with a Galaxy Nexus, which is an older phone. This gives us hope that the new OS will be able to run on most of the middle and high-end phones in production today.
Canonical announced that the new Ubuntu OS would be available in two kinds of phones, one at the entry level and the other one called “High-end superphone."
The hardware requirements are quite acceptable. The Entry level Ubuntu smartphone needs to have at least a 1Ghz Cortex A9 (single core as the bare minimum), 512MB or 1GB memory, a 4-8GB eMMC + SD for storage, and Multi-touch capability.
The high-end Ubuntu "superphone" is a little more demanding and will need at least Quad-core A9 or Intel Atom processors, minimum 1GB for memory, minimum 32GB eMMC + SD for storage, and Multi-touch.
The difference between the two models will consist in what Canonical calls “Desktop convergence.” With the help of a dock and a monitor, the high-end Ubuntu "superphone" can be turned into a thin client for Ubuntu.
“We’re shaping the future of personal computing. Ubuntu is proven on the desktop, and uniquely positioned to be at the heart of the next wave of consumer electronics, combining a beautiful hand-held touch interface with a full PC experience when docked,“ stated Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and VP Products at Canonical.
The new Ubuntu OS for smartphones seem to be exactly what the mobile market needs right now, and that is a new experience. Whether it will be successful or not depends on the companies that will want to adopt the OS and sell it with their devices.