While Apple and Samsung rule the smartphone roost, the Ubuntu Edge wants to take a slice out of the market, using the crowdfunding power of indiegogo.
The smartphone market doesn’t leave much room for competitors. Almost entirely dominated by the likes of Apple and their iPhones and Samsung’s many Android powered devices, it would be difficult for many other technology companies to attempt to take away some of their market share from them. Even more so, Apple have a huge following of fans willing to buy their smartphones, and Samsung have a trusted legion of buyers too, both sets of smartphone enthusiasts unlikely to jump ship to an unknown competitor. However, the Ubuntu Edge is not just any competitor as it could potentially be one of the best smartphones available.
The Ubuntu Edge actually isn’t marketing itself as a smartphone. Its official indiegogo page (it’s using the crowdfunding site to fund its production) actual describes the device as “the next generation of personal computing: smartphone and desktop PC in one state-of-the-art device.” Just how it’s managing to boast such a tagline is what’s the most interesting part about the Ubuntu Edge. The phone boots into both the Ubuntu mobile OS as well as Android, making the phone function like a desktop PC. While the CPU/GPU specs are also yet to be finalised, the listed comparison table (which you can see above), has 128GB of internal storage, 4GB of RAM and will even retail for almost $70 cheaper than the iPhone 5.
As the Ubuntu Edge doesn’t have the marketing muscle of Apple and Samsung, they’re asking for plenty of money from backers. The team behind the phone are asking for $32 million dollars. With 17 days to go, the project is just over $8 million of the way funded, meaning that there’s still plenty more money that needs to be raised. Hopefully that money will be made up as potential backers hand over money on account of the phone not being available at launch and the only way to get a Ubuntu Edge at launch is to be a backer. You can watch a project video for the phone below.
We’ll keep you posted once we know more about the phone’s development.
Source: indiegogo
Read more on walyou, Star Wars Smartphone Dock, Use Your Smartphone To Lock Your Door
