Ubuntu Edge - Ubuntu Smartphone Announcement?

[EssoAir]

In the US, we have contracts (not sure if they have those other places). These contracts allow you to upgrade your phone ever 2 years for $200-$300. I live in an area of the country that breeds dipshits faster than rabbits. So, people here will buy new phones at the cheap price instead of feeding their kids or paying their bills. So, I go on Craigslist and find people that are like "oh ya, I forgot to buy food - anyone want my new phone for the same price I payed" and I buy it from then. So, for $300 I get a new phone. So new, it had never been activated. it still had the clear plastic film on it. I didnt even have to pay for gas. The dude drove to my house to sell it to me.

I think you might have a stolen phone. This happened where I lived with iPhones, it turned out the guy stole a whole box of them in transit to somewhere. Dude, you probably bought a stolen phone.


I don't think you should hold this against the Edge though, kinda not fair comparing a phone at second hand price to retail.

Its not stolen. CDMA phones have whats called an ESN. If a phone is stolen, the phone can no longer be activated. I always call US Cellular to ensure that its a clean ESN before I purchase it. Srsly, if you go on knoxville.craigslist.org you see people in that situation a LOT

 

[vcoleiro1]

^ Not deleted , but merged with this one.  Probably a wise move, it was getting confusing to have 2.

Probably got about 2 -3 hours before the $600 tier is fully taken up. So if anyone is thinking about it, get in quick 

^ Exactly 2.5 hours from my comment above, all of the $600 tier is gone . How's that for an estimate.

Currently sitting at $3,148,000

Lets see how quickly/slowly it rises now that the price is $830.

Edit: Strange , there are 5012 (of the 5000 available) taken.  Perhaps they are letting it run for the 24 hours as noted even though it says limited to 5000.  Even stranger, it says Sold Out on the $600 tier. Must have been a lot of people already in the buy process at the end - and it let them all through.

 

[second exodous]

Lol, if you want to get into the cheap phones you might still be able to.  5012 our of 5000 are claimed.  I wonder 13 people got their order in at the same time or if they just let it go up.

EDIT: h34r: 'd

Now it is up to 5035 of 5000.

 

[EssoAir]

5035 of the $600 phones sold

 

[vcoleiro1]

I get the feeling that not many people will go for the $830 now that the $600 is gone. My guess is that they will eventually open up the $600 level again or at least a much cheaper level than $830.

Just a guess

 

[second exodous]

^^ You might be correct, they could just say that 5000(+39 now) get the dock for free to make the first dayers feel special.  I hope they make the 32 million goal.  That is a huge number for crowd-funding.  This is a project that will push the envelope if successful.

Crowd-funding in general amazes me, stuff we would never have gotten before from people that have the vision but don't have the means now becomes reality.  Hope they make the 32 million goal.

 

[kingoddball]

I hope it reaches. It slowing to a halt now


Oop- slowing ticking.


I like the idea of a dock for the original 5K backers.

 

[second exodous]

I don't know, the number of 'full price backers' has tripped since the discounted first day special ran out.  I don't think they'll get the 32 million in one week but I'm betting this campaign will see initial success, slow down, then mid month speed up a bit.  Most donors are 'watchers';  even when money won't be taken until the allotted time is up people won't donate until it looks like it will succeed.  This I don't get, if you want it to succeed why not just pledge money and then if it isn't successful you aren't charged anyway.  I never got the huge surges at the last 10% or so.

This campaign is different however, your money is taken and held until the time is up so a lot of people think they're paying for it before it is successful.  You'll still get it back if it fails but it will be a bitter pill for a lot of people to swallow.  I'm sure there are a lot of people that will donate right at the end so even if they're 10 million away on day 29 with a few hours to go I won't be surprised if they make it in that time.

 

[comradekingu]

But it's still 100% Ubuntu, not their Android-Ubuntu combo

And that is a good thing, you dont want to be held down by android linux kernels or android drivers, invariably tied to each other in a mess where one part doesnt support something thats newer than what its got already, which mean your other part which depends on that being updated doesnt work, so you are left at the mercy of closed source deprecation mentality.

 

[vcoleiro1]

Unless they offer cheaper perks. they wont even get to $6 million let alone $32 million.  

The project just stopped dead once the $600 tier ran out.

A lot of backers are commenting that the $600 or cheaper tier needs to return for it to have a chance. I agree with them.

Perfect example of product price segment sensitivity.  

$600 - it goes gang busters 

$830 - and it stops dead.

 

[second exodous]

The Ubuntu Edge will dual-boot both the Ubuntu phone OS and Android

 That is right on the indiegogo Edge page.  It will dual boot Android and Ubuntu Phone.  I don't see it as a negative, some people have a lot invested in Android.  Ubuntu phone looks really great, hopefully people will use it more than Android.  Android has been getting better also though, hope they're not shooting themselves in the foot.

EDIT:  Oh wait, by Android-Ubuntu combo does that mean run at the same time?  I don't think they will, Canonical tried that at first but then later decided to dump it.  Most people thought it was to push the Ubuntu phone OS but I think it was more that it would hold Canonical back using a Android kernel.

Unless they offer cheaper perks. they wont even get to $6 million let alone $32 million.

The project just stopped dead once the $600 tier ran out.

A lot of backers are commenting that the $600 or cheaper tier needs to return for it to have a chance. I agree with them.

Perfect example of product price segment sensitivity.

$600 - it goes gang busters

$830 - and it stops dead.

Holy cow, it is the first day, let it go for a week before they decide to add the $600 price back.

 

[vcoleiro1]

^ I'd do it now if I was them. Since only 160 odd people have elected to go for the $830 tier, I'd just get rid of that $830 tier and offer them the Edge for $600 .  At the same time introduce a $600 or $650 tier.  O

OF course that all depends on if its financially viable. I imagine they would have calculated the funds needed based on the majority of backers being at $830 which unfortunately is not going to happen.

The first few days are the glory days for these projects then the hard times start,  Then towards the end it starts to recover a bit and pick up - But inbetween there usually is a long slow period.  In the middle of Ouyas KS, they were actually going backwards.

 

[second exodous]

Most of the projects I watch have huge initial success, then money trickles in until it is around 75%, then huge sure puts them over the top. Most, not all. Also, it went up $10,000 in around 20 minutes I have been watching it. This is the first day, most people that will donate haven't even heard of it yet.

I'm sure they did calculate it and this is probably what they can do. If it fails because they did calculate what they can and can't do then it is a good thing. If it succeeds just because they drop the price and then becomes vaporware that is a bad thing, it will stain Ubuntu and Canonical for life and Linux for a long time. That is a bad thing.

 

[vcoleiro1]

^ Yes they are sort of stuck in between a hard place and a rock I'd imagine.  The only saving grace is that they really haven't specified that much about the phone. They have left the door open a bit to drop the price and cut corners a little. 

Out of the projects I have watched the first day is the highest then it drops of until the 5th day were it drops off heavily until pretty much what you said ie 3/4 mark, then it picks up again.  At this point , and it is very early , my guess is they will fall well short (not even close) unless they  start cheaper tiers.

 

[second exodous]

I'd rather see them fail here rather than fail after they succeed here though. It is still going up at almost 1,000 a minute.

Now, I'm not saying this because I'm from Texas but I think the largest number of donors will be from the US and most Americans aren't even up right now. My reasoning for this is I think the Americans are more willing to throw away money(look at what EssoAir said earlier) and therefore are the biggest market. Most electronic waste dumped in the third world is from the US because of this. I'm just guessing, but by the end of the evening in California you'll see growth.

 

[vcoleiro1]

That's true, there is a kick during US day time. Will see what happens and where it's at after day 5

 

[second exodous]

Also, 32 million is A LOT of money. I have my fingers crossed, I'd really like to own this phone.

 

[EssoAir]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EtNhlVn3ETQ?feature=oembed

According to this, when you run Android, you can still run Ubuntu. So, that means that the software will likely be ported to other phones (hopefully my S4)


So now I don't even have a need to get the phone...

 

[EssoAir]

its still going up, little by little. Total of 5045 people snagged a $600 edition. Sadly, unless they lower the price, that might be the vast majority of buyers. Only 300 people have purchased an $830 unit.


As I said, if they release the software, then personally I'll have no need for the hardware.


I tweeted @Ubuntu asking them to add a $10 software access tier but they didnt respond.

 

[_jr_]

Most of the software is free, so it will be released anyway (how to make any use of it on another device is a different questions). The interesting question is: can you reuse your phone's existing kernel and nonfree drivers for the various essential components (connectivity, gfx, etc.). I suspect that will only be possible for a few devices.


Even more interesting for this as a hackable device is, whether there will be free drivers for the hardware (or alternatively adequate longterm support for major kernel revisions). Having crappy gfx drivers definitely hasn't helped the pandora. I didn't see this adressed in the project info, probably because they don't know yet (they haven't even decided on cpu architecture, and hackability doesn't seem a priority), but I might have missed it.


To me personally this longterm viability of my investment would be more important and I couldn't care less, whether it has the latest and greatest hardware at release time.