14 DAY TRIAL // The new Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition was officially released in Europe a couple of weeks ago, but it's available only in a limited fashion. Now, Canonical has announced that the number of invites to purchase the phone has been increased so that more users can order it.
Canonical and Meizu are using a sort of "guerilla marketing" approach for the new MX4 Ubuntu Edition, and the people who want it need to receive an invitation to buy it. All they have to do is access the official website and play a game that either reveals different trivia about the phone and the operating system, or get an invite to buy it. And, to make things even harder, you only get three tries per day.
Some intrepid users found ways of going around this limitation, but it looks like Meizu wants to stay ahead of the game, and they have increased the number of invites that are dished out every day. It's not clear how many of these invites currently are, so we don't know if the increase is a sizable one, but it's there nonetheless.
The Meizu game won't last forever
Just as it happened with the Bq devices, which initially was only made available through a series of short flash sales, the phone will eventually be sold to anyone who wants one. In the meantime, Canonical wants to be sure that only the people who are really interested in an Ubuntu phone get to buy one. We've already explained why this is important for Canonical, and it all has to do with the feedback.
"Folks, today we have doubled the number of invites for the Meizu MX4 device via our Origami wall. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's also peppered with surprises that include facts and trivia around the #ubuntuphone Come and try it out >>" reads the entry on Google+.
We wrote extensively about the Ubuntu MX4 Ubuntu Edition, so you might as well check it out if you want more details about it.