The Ubuntu Edge campaign played a very important role

Oct 1, 2015 20:48 GMT  ·  By

Every Ubuntu fan remembers the Ubuntu Edge, the super phone that galvanized the community and almost changed the paradigm in the mobile world. Unfortunately, the crowdfunding effort for Ubuntu Edge failed, but it opened up the games for what we have today, Ubuntu for phones.

It's difficult to imagine how Ubuntu for phones would have looked today or in what state it would have been if the crowdfunding campaign for Ubuntu Edge had been successful. Back in 2013, Canonical wanted to raise $32 million, but it ended up with only $12 million. Even if the company didn't even get half of what it wanted, it still broke all the records for crowdfunding.

Ubuntu Edge was the concept of a superphone that would integrate all the latest technologies and hardware, and even some stuff that wasn't even available at the time. For example, it was set to use sapphire glass, long before Apple even "had" the idea. The makers of the phone wanted the best, top-of-the-line hardware, without any restrictions. It seemed too good to be true, and in a way it was.

Crowdfunding as a tool

Canonical would have probably built the phone if they had reached the goal, but they must have known that it would be almost impossible. Instead, they use the campaign to figure out what's the market for such a device or mobile OS based on Ubuntu. Here enters Ubuntu Touch.

"The Ubuntu Edge campaign beat crowdfunding records and introduced new technology to the market in a way no one else in the phone industry has done before. The success of the campaign demonstrated the appetite for something different from the smartphone experience as well as allowing us to acquire a new database of fans. Taking this demand and creating a commercially available product with the Ubuntu Phone has made this a reality, by breaking down barriers in the mobile user experience and ecosystem development," said Amrisha Prashar, Campaign and Social Media Manager at Canonical.

Ubuntu is now available in a few phones, and it seems to be expanding. New updates land all the time for it and the OS gets better all the time. Sure, the developers got where they are now more slowly than with $30 million in their pockets, but the result is something different and with a lot of potential.

Ubuntu for phones
Ubuntu for phones

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