Canonical Goes Big In Attempt To Crowdfund Exclusive Ubuntu Phone
from the real-time-market-research dept
It's no secret that Mark Shuttleworth, the CEO of Canonical, maker of Ubuntu Linux, has very strongly embraced the mobile ecosystem as the future. Back in May, he famously "closed" bug 1 listed for Ubuntu, which was "Microsoft has a majority market," declaring that this was no longer true, thanks to iOS and Android (mainly Android).Android may not be my or your first choice of Linux, but it is without doubt an open source platform that offers both practical and economic benefits to users and industry. So we have both competition, and good representation for open source, in personal computing.This came a few months after Canonical had announced that it was launching Ubuntu for mobile platforms back at MWC.
Even though we have only played a small part in that shift, I think it's important for us to recognize that the shift has taken place. So from Ubuntu's perspective, this bug is now closed.
Now they're taking it up a notch with an incredibly ambitious crowdfunding campaign on IndieGogo, trying to raised $32 million in one month, for an exclusive new hardware device, the Ubuntu Edge, which will only be available to backers of the project (if it gets funded). The video Shuttleworth put together is worth watching:
One other interesting tidbit: they set up the campaign so that if people bid on the first day, they can get the phone for $600, or $230 less than it is throughout the rest of the campaign. The campaign shot through half a million very quickly and is still going up from there, but I wonder if it will slow down a bit after the first day and the price goes up.
If this project reaches $32 million, it will more than triple the most successful crowdfunding project to date, the Pebble smartwatch, which raised over $10 million. But, this is exactly the kind of project that crowdfunding was made for -- because it really is investing in a somewhat risky project, while also acting as a form of market research. People who are buying into this are buying into the vision -- which is definitely a risk. The phone hasn't been built yet. All the imagery are renderings, rather than prototypes. And, you never know how the execution will turn out. Personally, I'd rather see and feel a phone before I shell out $600 or $800 for the device, but for people will to support the basic idea of advancing mobile computing, it appears that many see it as a worthwhile contribution towards that goal, whether or not the device itself turns out to be worth it.
It's quite impressive to see how quickly they've brought in so much money -- and it will really say something about the hunger for moving the space forward if they can get to $32 million. Of course, even if it doesn't reach the $32 million goal, the project is clearly successful on multiple levels. As we've noted in the past, crowdfunding projects that don't reach their goals are not "failures." They're smart market research at work. If there isn't a big enough market for these phones, Canonical just saved itself a ton of money by not going ahead with the actual production. And, at the same time, they still get a ton of free publicity for the mobile software... So whether or not this project hits its goal, it's crowdfunding done right.
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Filed Under: android, crowdfunding, mark shuttleworth, market research, pushing the envelope, smartphones, ubuntu
Companies: canonical
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Meh
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Rather than resting on his laurels he is taking risks, and trying to break into new markets. I love the prospect of an Ubuntu powered phone/tablet and will be following the project with anticipation. Anything that can break into the market enjoyed by the big 3 can only be a good thing.
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An admirable effort, but I don't think they'll get anywhere close of their target.
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Re:
It's basically a free test run for their pet project. If it works, great. If it doesn't...meh, it wasn't his money that was on the line anyway.
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Re: Re:
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Crowdfunding
As of today, Star Citizen has raised $14.6m, and is well on track for their goal $21m:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Citizen
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Re: Re: Re:
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The market is already oversaturated with gizmos and versions exceeding 3, with no signs of slowing down. "Power of the Desktop PC"? Perhaps this company isn't aware of what today's phones can do.
Good luck to them. They're going to need it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
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Really, a new phone? Whee! Innovation!
Many are these campaigns seem like funding only the fund-raisers:
"[IndieGogo] levies a 4% fee for successful campaigns. For campaigns that fail to raise their target amount, users have the option of either refunding all money to their contributors at no charge or keeping all money raised but with a 9% fee."
Scams are increasing because libertarian noobs never expect bad actors in their "free" notions. For instance, Shuttleworth might intentionally set the goal too high, actually hopes reaches only say $10 million, of which his pals at IndieGogo get 9 percent, and he skips with over 9 million. There don't appear to be insurance or bonding or investigations or anything real businesses must do, only Terms of Service pages that disclaim all responsibility for a "platform".
As IndieGogo is HQ'd in San Fransisco, home of the scammers, Mike may have an interest in this, either way it goes. He's not required to disclose his interests, ya know, cause you're getting this all for "free", or worse, agreeing to pay him.
The catchphrase of "teh internets" is not just "Buyer Beware", but "Contributor Be REAL Wary".
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Re:
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Re: Crowdfunding
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Re: Really, a new phone? Whee! Innovation!
The 4%/9% split depends on what type of project you set up. This one is set up to ONLY receive funds if it reaches the full amount. So the hypothetical you express above is impossible.
Facts can be useful. You should try them.
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Re: Re:
Why do so many developers think this is a good idea? It's a terrible idea, as literally every effort has demonstrated clearly.
What makes a great interface for phone or tablet makes a terrible interface for the desktop -- and vice versa.
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Lawsuit over patent infringement coming to Canonoical
Even if they get this project funded, how many years will the inevitably popping up law suits over patent infringement delay the product from actually being brought to the market?
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Re: Really, a new phone? Whee! Innovation!
Are they about to compete with let's say Nokia, that has about 20 years of experience in industrial design? Or with Apple, which have ~10 years in UI design? Or maybe with Samsung+Google, both having budget counted in billions?
Now, 32M is not very big number. It actually means, that custom SoC is out of question; or in simpler terms: not Apple/Samsung level of integration for you.
So, crappy hardware is almost guaranteed. Now, since software is supposed to be "Android-compatible", I don't see much innovation here either.
In short - useless gimmick.
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Re: Re: Really, a new phone? Whee! Innovation!
As if small upstart teams with a lot less money haven't completely overturned giant dominant expensive paradigms in the past?
While I agree that it makes sense to be skeptical, to automatically rule it out based on the above seems silly? Upstarts with much smaller budgets very often do approach things from a different angle and upset the apple cart...
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Re: Meh
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Re: Re: Meh
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All of them fail miserably at the one-size-fits-all thing, as is inevitable.
Apple is the only one who seems to understand this: phones and desktops have very different UI needs, and need different UIs.
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I'm not saying it's good. But it's not like Ubuntu desktop shrunk down or anything completely stupid like that.
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Re: Re: Re: Meh
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Re: Re: Meh
I recently stopped using it and jumped ship to fedora because of the irritation that is Unity. Actually liking Gnome 3 now which I didn't when I first tried it.
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Re: Re: Really, a new phone? Whee! Innovation!
It is not unheard of for a small start up to stand toe to toe with the big boys and hold their own.
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Re: Meh
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The Door is Closed
In 2006, the cellular industry had languished since the turn of the century with slow phone innovation. Carriers blocked improvements because they cost an additional 30 cents, or because they threatened their stranglehold on industry control.
I worked for a Korean cellular company, and we tried selling our 3G solutions to US carriers that were still on 2G networks. One of our humble improvements was color on the phone LCD. I was in talks with the senior people at a top US phone company, and my favorite quote remains:
"We're not sure the US consumer wants color in their phone."
That was 2001. After that, the US was treated to a number of years of Motorola Razr, where the best innovations involved a new color each year. If, on occasion, a phone maker made a better phone, like 2005's Nokia N95, then carriers would not subsidize it because it cost too much. The market was not competitive, but it was "locked down" by carriers.
That left all kinds of low-hanging fruit for a new entrant able to upset the apple cart and give consumers a decent product. So, we all know what happened -- Apple did just that. Capactive touch screens and a good UI that respects the user were not new ideas...it's just that it took Apple to commit to use it. The challenge around Shuttleworth's efforts today are, the market looks completely different.
Today, cellular phones are tremendously competitive and I would argue almost as good as they can be. There is competition at the high, mid, and low tiers, but the greatest competition in the market is for the so-called flagship phones. The hero phones, or the halo phones that make the entire brand look cool. So HTC, Motorola, LG, Nokia, Samsung, Sony et al compete to put out the best device. When they don't push it far enough, Google puts out a Nexus model to nudge things forward. On the OS side, Apple and Android are doing a good job of giving the consumer features they want in a good UI. If they hesitate to improve, they know Windows Phone, BlackberryOS, Tizen or others will eat their lunch.
In technology, there is often an unseen missing feature, or some better way of doing things that a newcomer can use as a doorway in. But at this juncture, there are several big players already trying to find those doors to claw their way back against Samsung. The market simply lacks the low-hanging fruit. So good luck to Canonical, I'll cheer for the underdog, but I'm not putting my money on this bet.
@derekkerton
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Re: The Door is Closed
I've thought this idea has been overdue for a few years now. I think it will ultimately be the approach for personal computing, even if it's not Ubuntu Edge as the market leader.
These phones have more computing power and faster internet than a top-of-the-line laptop had a decade ago...
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Not so far, it doesn't, or at least not enough. There are several aspects of the new KDE that are obviously meant for touch screens but that can't be easily changed for the desktop.
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Bad start
They clearly don't know how crow funding works or they wouldn't start the contributions at $20 and go immediately to $830. Seriously, I hope they do fail at this. Screw them for trying to screw their contributors.
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Re: Bad start
They're putting a *minimum* of 4GB of RAM in that thing when the most expensive phones available today just started coming with 2GB. I expect the other specs (like processor) to be absolutely top-of-the-line as well. And they're not making millions of these. They're shooting to sell 40,000 of these devices. Component prices are obviously not as great as if they were ordering > 1 million of the various parts. So yah, early adopters can expect to pay a little more than the mass-produced phones of today...
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Re: Re: Bad start
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Re: Re: The Door is Closed
http://meetmhl.com/DoMoreWithMHL.aspx
Each of those technologies reproduces the phone screen on a big display. And they are included in hundreds of phone models...including this one by Canonical. Hey, I love the concept of convergence with the desktop (done well). But it's not a missing feature, nor significantly innovative compared to the competition.
Disclosure: I have consulted for MHL as an evangelist.
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Re: Re: Re: Meh
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Sounds great
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