Canonical: Last change to Ubuntu Edge phone price – we promise Canonical has stabilised pricing for its proposed Ubuntu phone, Edge, at $695 to be paid by eager Penguins into an Indiegogo funding round. It has also landed a corporate patron, Bloomberg, which pledged $80,000 to the effort. Only financial backers of this funding round will get a phone – the actual mass-manufactured job won' …
Yeah, I didn't know that before yesterday when I bothered to watch the videos, the price is pretty good for what it replaces (a phone and a desktop), surprising Ubuntu is first with this, I think this particular attempt is going to fall way short of the funding goal but it's clearly a good if somewhat obvious next step for computing.
You have to remember that this phone has 128 GB storage, 4 GB RAM, the best multi-core processor available when produced, and a GPU that will be able to output full HD to a external screen.
"for a phone! OMG LOL"
For a phone, and a phone that can run a desktop OS when connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
What du you pay for iPhone 5?
You must also remember that this is a unlocked phone with dual-LTE and GMS, cabale of runing in most networks i US and Europe, and most other countries. It is an unsubsidiced device, that is not locked to any carrier, for any amount of time. With this device you can choose the best or cheapest carrier, and the best and cheapest way to finance it.
The price for an Ubuntu Edge, a phone that also can run Android, is currently $780. An Apple iPhone 5 with 64 GB storage and 1 GB RAM costs $850.
Not only is the hardware great. The software is greate to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-PEWGwk03o
I got myself a Firefox phone for 150 euro that I could no doubt trade one hack up of Android for another on. You'd be lucky to get 700 bucks out of me even if you reinvented the Nokia Communicator in an awesome thin form factor with touch screens on both surfaces. Enjoy your alpha quality software at a premium price, suckers.
I have held a prototype of this phone. Yes, it does have edges and sharp corners. Anyone with industry design experience and any modicum of knowledge about consumer lawsuits would stop this thing before it hurts anyone. And I am totally serious. Current phones have rounded junctions and smooth surfaces for very good reasons besides look and feel - rounded is safer. People do really stupid and accidental shit and this phones edges are so sharp you might as well call it the Ubuntu Lawsuit phone.
I'd be all for another, valid, mobile phone option but $32M seems like an awfully small figure for the design, manufacture, sales, distribution and warranty of, what I assume, is supposed to be a mass market product. More power to them if they can get it done for that, but $32M doesn't go as far as you'd think when you're cranking out physical product.
My personal opinion is that Mr. Shuttleworth is sounding the market for hardware with this action.
Ubuntu phone as an OS is supposed to run on the majority of modern (Android) hardware, so an actual Canonical-branded phone isn't necessary. I think he'd like to cash in on the mobile hardware sales and just checks how many people would genuinely be interested. From my point of thinking 1000 people giving £5 each are more informative to him than Bloomberg pledging 80 grand.
It's obviously not reaching the goal, let's face it. So we'll see if he personally jumps in and tops the result up by himself (indicating that he thinks there was enough interest), or scraps the whole thing.
Not many software businesses have ever successfully expanded into hardware, so I guess it will be the latter.
I agree. Shuttleworth is no fool. He knew from the start - even before it was unveiled - that this 'exercise' in crowdfunding has to succeed. If it fails, it will call into question the viability of Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu mobile. Google has been saying it for years and the subsequent collapse of the desktop market has borne them out: the future is mobile computing. Shuttleworth knows that for Ubuntu to become mainstream it HAS to go mobile.
I believe Ubuntu Edge WILL be manufactured and WILL be made available for sale. If Huawai, et. al. can manufacture decent smarphones phones for < £100 then the £32m/$695 price tags would appear to repesent nothing more than a 'wish list' and are, in no way, a show stopper for the Ubuntu Edge project.
.......depending of course on the hardware. I am a Windows user from way back when but I am still very interested in what Canonical may come up with. I do not understand the sneering we are seeing amongst some of the Vanguard of the Commentariat (well I do understand what's going on here but if I expressed my opinion of it I might actually get modded - how embarrassing would that be here at the Wild, Wild West of Vulture Central). If they produce a high end mob that can function both as a phone and as a desktop (when docked)* then yours truly will certainly be willing to pony up.
*http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/08/02/tmobile_signs_on_to_bring_ubuntu_phones_to_us_mobile_market/
...to have rattled the cage labelled 'Sneering Haters', though I'm sure they could do better than that if they were really trying. But then the Edge doesn't really matter, does it, except to the people who are actually interested in joining in the experiment; and the sneering haters who just can't help themselves. Poor things.
"This really seems to have rattled the cage labelled 'Sneering Haters', though I'm sure they could do better than that if they were really trying. But then the Edge doesn't really matter, does it, except to the people who are actually interested in joining in the experiment; and the sneering haters who just can't help themselves. Poor things."
Are you new around here?
I haven't got my own smartphone or tablet. So far there's no way I'd cough up a sum that would buy a decent laptop or desktop for a device that matches the power of a decent laptop or desktop from just a few years ago and receive in return a seriously substandard computer.
For all the tablets and smartphones to date have their potential crippled in so many ways by the Apple and Android companies that they are only the feintest shadows of what the hardware inside is capable of. And why? So the vendors can keep pretty much complete control of the device and how it's used.
One day, some small devices will be delivered in a way that leaves the user with significant control over the OS and what runs on it. Just like I've been able to choose between umpteen flavours of Windows, Solaris, Linux etc. to suit my needs, aspirations or vendor-paranoia on a 'proper' computer, so, when I can do the same on small devices, will I feel that some have been let out of their straightjackets and allowed to grow up to be proper little computers themselves. When that happens I'll happily pay decent money for a half-decent device that is good for much more serious use than web surfing, media consumption, games and social stuff.
I don't hold out huge hope that this will be the device that opens those doors, but, I keep my fingers crossed and, regardless, it will be a huge step in the right direction and may herald the dawn of acknowledging that the little computers inside smartphones and tablets are just that: computers.
So how many hours a week do you expect to spend tweaking your "nearly working once I install the latest patches" phone? Fact is, 99.99% of phone users want a phone that will make and receive calls and play Angry Birds. A few (a very few) folks like your good self want a box-of-LEGOs toy they can play with endlessly and whether it can actually do what it's supposed to at any given time is irrelevant to you. Mr. Shuttleworth is willing to provide you with just such a toy as long as you send him money right now and then wait a few months to see if he'll actually come through with what he's promised you. Me, if I needed another phone I'd go along the street to one of the local phone emporia and get something off-the-shelf that works as a phone and I'd pay a lot less than the Ubuntuphone is going to cost.
I'm tempted to get one but at $695.00 + $30 freight I need some basic information.
(1) If (as seems possible) the funding goal is not met do Canonical intend to return my $725 dollars ?
(2) Will this phone work on my local mobile phone networks (Eastern Australia) ?
(3) Will I be able to change the operating system to say FireFoxPhone or CyanogenMod or (if they are developed) latter versions of the Edge OS ?
(4) Will there be a place to download (synaptic ?) application software for this phone. It seems unlikely since the number of phones to be produced is quiet small with no real intention of future phones to follow this one.
(5) Will it be possible to change the gain of the microphone amp (I cannot on my current smart phone which is why I only use my old candy bar phone, I speak softly).
I've used Ubuntu software for free for years and if I don't buy a phone I will contribute $50 to this campaign (least I can do).
Most of those are answerable from the item page:
1) Indiegogo funding only gives the money to them if they hit the target. If they don't, the money goes back to you.
2) They've provided the compatibility as "Dual-LTE and GSM".
3) Unknown, but you'd only really want to upgrade the system OS - else you're getting a phone which works as a desktop and then removing the desktop functionality. If you want to run Firefox's OS - buy a cheaper phone etc...
4) It runs Android (so you can have the usual android stuff), and Ubuntu, so you can install the usual Ubuntu packages. The idea of the android boot is to allow early use when there may be less apps around. But people will develop apps for the Ubuntu side.
5) This is one they don't answer. I've not come across a smartphone that does allow you to do this directly though. Easy answer - speak louder. :)
I'd probably consider buying one of these, but if they stick to their guns regards the whole "If we don't raise the full amount then we're not going to build it." thing, then it's pretty obvious that they're not going to be building any.
Given how powerful modern phones are, and how shocking under-utilized most desktops are, having one device that can perform both functions sounds perfect - especially in a business type environment where all people do is email and Office... Not convinced this is going to be the device that gets us there tho.
"I'd probably consider buying one of these, but if they stick to their guns regards the whole "If we don't raise the full amount then we're not going to build it." thing, then it's pretty obvious that they're not going to be building any."
It would only take fifteen thousand people like you to decide to sponsor because they'd like the phone if it happens (although they expect to get their money back in practice) to make up the difference.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
