He thinks it wasn't as open and community-driven as intended

Jun 21, 2017 12:03 GMT  ·  By

Former Ubuntu Phone developer, Simon Raffeiner, which many of you know as sturmflut, has written a detailed article on his blog to share his thoughts on why he thinks the Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu Touch projects failed.

Simon Raffeiner worked on the Ubuntu Touch operating system since its official announcement back in 2013, believing in the project's goals and objectives. He worked for about three years, up until mid-2016, on various Ubuntu Phone-related things, including but not limited to Click apps, bug reports, and tutorials for others to start hacking on Ubuntu Touch.

Now, a year after he left Canonical's Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system and the Ubuntu Phone dream behind, the Ubuntu Phone Insider talks in a lengthy article about why he thinks the project failed and what others can learn from this failure. He also explains some of the challenges that Ubuntu Phone team faced and where they could have done better.

Ubuntu Phone did not target a profitable niche

In the story, Simon Raffeiner said that the biggest opponents of the Ubuntu Phone project were Android and iOS, and we can't argue with him on that one. He believes that Ubuntu Phone did not target a profitable niche and that the user experience offered on these devices was bad.

"People crying for a third alternative mostly didn’t do so because Android or iOS had a bad reputation, or were too limited, or gave people a bad user experience, but because they (rightfully) feared a Google monopoly," says Raffeiner. "So attacking Android and iOS was not as easy as attacking Microsoft and Red Hat on PCs and servers had been."

Another thing that might have contributed to the failure of Ubuntu Phone devices, is the fact that the smartphones and tables of various mobile device manufacturers like Meizu and BQ were hard to get and didn’t deliver, according to the developer, though Canonical's goals were to capture only one percent of the mobile market to keep its Ubuntu Phone and Convergence visions alive.

"At that time this translated into selling about eleven million Ubuntu phones and a couple of million tablets per year," says Simon Raffeiner in his detailed report, where he is "accusing" Canonical of chaotic communication and somewhat misleading marketing of Ubuntu Phone and Tablet devices, as well as of concentrating too much on technical features that would not interest anyone.

Another aspect that might surprise some of you out there closely following the Ubuntu Phone scene is the fact that the entire project was not as open and community-driven as intended, or at least that's what the former Ubuntu Phone Insider felt during his years working on the Ubuntu Touch operating system. Do you think Canonical's Ubuntu Phone/Tablet/Convergence visions could have had a future? The developers over at UBports think so, and they continue developing new features for Ubuntu on phones.

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Ubuntu Convergence visionUbuntu Phone mockup when it was first announced
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