Ubuntu Edge - Ubuntu Smartphone Announcement?

[b_o_b]

You raised the campaign total to: $5,151,902!

 

[EssoAir]

Where did they say that Ubuntu Touch won't be open-source?


As far as I know, the beta version runs on all the latest Nexus devices…


And you can build it from source. 


They just want a physical device with the Ubuntu brand on it.


And it allows them to check the interest for this OS and get some advertising.

I was just saying if I were running the show, thats how I would do it. I wasnt saying thats how it actually happened.

 

[Asiyura]

That would be completely dumb.
By making an OS open source since the beginning, you get a shitload of developers working for free

There they'll go the google/android way, using ads and running their own "appstore".
That's probably the most sensible route.

EDIT: IMHO Ubuntu Touch can be a success. Videos got me interested whereas, back then, android videos just made me think of Windows CE with a bit of RIM/iOS…

 

[EssoAir]

Android is only a success because Google made it one. I love it, but if it had stayed completely FOSS it would have sucked balls. I wish there was a way to make something non-free quality, but without even a hint of non-free code. Sadly, I dont think it can be done. I just wish Ubuntu didnt have Amazon Spyware in it.

 

[WizardStan]

But what I'm saying is, you run a Kickstarter that promises to release the software and port it to various devices.

And what I'm saying is that if they just release the software wholly for existing devices then they have no revenue stream. So they get a few thousand now and release it as open source for specific phones; what do they do next year? It's just not sustainable. No manufacturer will buy their OS from them: Microsoft is having difficulty getting a large number of companies on board with Windows 8, Ubuntu wouldn't stand a chance. They would have to do the porting themselves and sell directly to consumers who are interested in a Linux phone who own the particular phones they've ported to: a subset of a subset of a niche. It's a tiny market and probably not worth the thousands per year it would generate.If they simply release the source for quick cash now and let others do the porting then they've completely removed all possible revenue, they're back to trying to sell services and their app store, something they may be able to do once their brand has been established but right now they are failing at it.

The only thing they can do that would have any chance of steady income is producing their own hardware like Apple did. Once they've established themselves in the market, even if with only 1% share, then they'll be in a position to capitalize on market and services: 60 million phones, $50 per year in licensing and accessory sales, that's some nice income. Compared against a few million today to release the software entirely as open source with potential income measured in just thousands? I know which direction I'd want to take my business. I was going to say it's a huge gamble, investing $32'000'000 into a product that may not pay off, but then I realized they aren't investing anything: it's crowd funded. If it succeeds then the phone will be made, but if they never sell another one after it goes to market they're still not out a whole lot. Worst case they fall back on the unmarketable services again.

Now, that all being said, it probably WILL be released as open source, everything it's based on seems to be GPL. If you just wait then there's a chance that someone might port it to your phone, same as with Cyanogenmod and the other Android flavours. It still makes sense for them to try and produce their own hardware first.

 

[ShleeDragon]

 

[WizardStan]

Sorry

 

[Asiyura]

Android is only a success because Google made it one. I love it, but if it had stayed completely FOSS it would have sucked balls. I wish there was a way to make something non-free quality, but without even a hint of non-free code. Sadly, I dont think it can be done. I just wish Ubuntu didnt have Amazon Spyware in it.

Android is a success because hardware makers can get it for free, that's why they put it everywhere (phones, tablets, netbooks, TV sticks, consoles, …)!And AFAIK android is FOSS… only softwares and drivers running on it are closed source.

That's why CyanogenMod and other "distro" of Android exist.

EDIT : Following your train of idea, open-source software

suck balls

, so Android is terrible.QED

EDIT 2 :

I just wish Ubuntu didnt have Amazon Spyware in it.

Yeah, it's not like android doesn't have Google Spyware in it. Or Windows, Microsoft AND prism spyware. (don't get me started on Apple spyware )

 

[EssoAir]

I want to switch my desktop to some Linux distro, but I spent about $150 in games. If I switch, very few of those will work on another platform. :,(

 

[Fzero]

Virtual box?


On my old linux desktop I ran a winXP vm just for a couple of programs

 

[WizardStan]

I want to switch my desktop to some Linux distro, but I spent about $150 in games. If I switch, very few of those will work on another platform. :,(

WINE. Also there's no reason to switch completely, you can keep Windows on a different partition and just reboot into it for the occasions where you find something that doesn't work in WINE.

On my old linux desktop I ran a winXP vm just for a couple of programs

Doesn't work too well for games, unfortunately. There was something about OpenGL passthrough that would have made things better provided the game was using OpenGL, but anything that's DirectX is problematic to say the least.

 

[mindlord]

Indeed I can install the Ubuntu Touch beta on my Asus Transformer right now.

 

[second exodous]

I want to switch my desktop to some Linux distro, but I spent about $150 in games. If I switch, very few of those will work on another platform. :,(

Use Steam or Desura to buy games, then if the games run on Linux you'll get both the Linux and the windows versions. For every thing else dual boot or use wine. I have a friend that ONLY uses windows for games, he calls his Wintendo partition. I've moved 100% away from windows but then again I only play Mincraft and a few other games so gaming on my PC isn't that important to me anymore. Pretty much now if I can play my emulators and Minecraft on my PC, which Linux does fine, I'm good as far as gaming goes.

With the snowden stuff out there is no way I'll ever use a windows device again. I use Android phones because Apple being a US company also probably isn't any better but if Ubuntu phone works out I'll probably switch to that. I'm not the kind of person that wears tin foil hat but I just don't want the NSA seeing everything I do.

Indeed I can install the Ubuntu Touch beta on my Asus Transformer right now.

I might get the new Nexus 7 just for this. I'd like to play with it a little.

 

[vcoleiro1]

Looks like we found the psychological price barrier.  The $625 filled real quick, then the $675 filled moderately quickly. Now the $725 tier is grinding badly.

My guess in hindsight is that the (unlimited) tier to get the bulk of the funding right from the start should have been $699 , with other higher tiers from there as bonus levels with additional perks.

Hindsight is a wonderfull thing, but I must say they really haven't done well with the tier levels they introduced (poor choice of pricing tiers and poor thought into perks for higher tiers). Even after it was clear that there was a clear barrier with the $830 tier, one would think they should have thought about it and got it right with the new tiers.  OH well, I'm sure they will introduce new tiers again .

 

[kingoddball]

... 5.5mil is pretty good. But a long ways away. All are selling at the $675 - I went to fund for another but they were gone next on the list is $7xx.


Seems unlikely that they will reach... Awwww Frowny face.

 

[second exodous]

Well, if they had to they could go for $699 like vcoleiro pointed out. I still would rather see them fail here than when they're funded because they sold it too cheap. They'd have to give some sort of bonus for staying at a higher price than that so people just don't cancel and then re-pledge at the lower price point though.

I think they should have had Ubuntu Phone running rock solid on Nexus phones before this though. People then could see more of what it is like and then could have promised more features if they could make their own phone.

 

[vcoleiro1]

Well in hindsight, this is how It probably should have been tiered something like below:

1000 Units at $600 as an Early Bird Special

Unlimited Units at $675

Choice of color (from 4 choices) for $775

Choice of color + engraved name at $850

Choice of color + Dock at $999

Choice of color + engraved name + Dock $1050

Above + specially autographed case (by the Edge Team) $1200

And so on

+ Existing $10,000 tier

Basically you need a main unlimited tier that is affordable -  plus tiers that offer something extra for  a premium to get to an average needed to fund the project. That's how most projects I have seen are tiered, they seem to have gone for tiers with no added perks but ascending price, very strange and badly thought out.

 

[jutleys]

Well i pledged at $675

 

[WizardStan]

Well in hindsight, this is how It probably should have been tiered something like below:

I'm almost positive they would end up with an average cost per unit of even less than what they're aiming for now under that plan. Unless substantially more than half are going to care about colour and engraving (and in my own opinion that's beyond optimistic, most people would simply opt for the "unlimited $675" option, but you may disagree) they'd be very shy of what they want.I think the final lesson that Canonical will need to take away from this is that the average person doesn't care about "best of the best of the best" and the value of it. They have their desired cost and it doesn't matter how many GB of RAM you drop into the thing, you're going to get decreasing returns. You're right that the price needs to be lower, but in order to reach that price point they're going to have to accept that a lot of sacrifices are going to have to be made. What was an awesome phone at an average of $800/phone is going to have a lot fewer bells and whistles at $700/phone.

 

[b_o_b]

That's how most projects I have seen are tiered, they seem to have gone for tiers with no added perks but ascending price, very strange and badly thought out.

I agree but if their main goal is market research this is not such a bad approach.