14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical and Meizu have set up a rather complicated way of getting the new Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition, but it's all done on purpose. Unfortunately, not everyone sees this and this has led to some strange conclusions and comments from the community.
Meizu and Canonical had an event a couple of days ago and announced the release, in Europe, of the new Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition. The only catch is that it's going to be available in limited numbers. Whoever wants a Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition will have to go the official website and play a small Origami game. Most likely, you'll be invited to play another day after a three tries, but a few lucky few will get an invitation that will allow them to purchase the phone.
This tactic and the fact that most media outlets focused entirely on this game instead of the launch itself has led to some confusion inside the community. Some people think that it's a stupid marketing ploy, other don't understand why Meizu and Canonical don't want to sell as many phones as possible. In the words of the Joker, "it's not about the money. It's about sending a message."
Why Canonical and Meizu are not interested in large sales
The best way to get constructive criticism for a new operating system is to get that OS in the hands of people who already know what they are getting or at least have an understanding of it. If your new OS ends up in the hands of random users who don't know anything about the product, you're going to get inundated with a lot of worthless feedback.
This can be avoided, and one way to do that is to make sure that only Ubuntu fans get the new phone. It's also a good tool to measure interest for a particular platform. Both companies said from the start that they are not interested in big sales, but that message didn't get across.
This is the main reason why you have to play a game for an invite, and it's nothing sinister behind their motivations. The only thing that you can accuse the two companies is a lack of proper communication skills.