Canonical’s Ubuntu Edge has definitely one of the most ambitious projects seeking crowd-funding to date, but sadly the project has failed to meet its goal on Indiegogo. It recently broke the record of the most amount of money every pledged to a crowdfunded online site, a figure that Pebble Watch had previously set. More than 27,000 people have contributed to Ubuntu’s smartphone project, but the fact is that it is a failure. The target was $32 million and Canonical was able to collect $12,809,906 on Indiegogo.
Even the creators of the projects have to agree that a miracle was needed to make the project a reality. It should be noted though, that while the amount is huge by crowdfunding standards, Canonical might not be able to produce Edge with the money raised. The company had planned to launch around 40,000 units of the Ubuntu Edge for which it needed $ 32 million. A lot of people have pitched in for the project, though. Bloomberg, the media company, recently pledged $80,000 to the campaign. Unfortunately, no other backer with that kind of moolah pitched in.
Canonical's ambitious project fails to reach funding goalWhile talking to Digital Trends earlier, the company’s Vice President, Victor Tuson Palau said that Canonical would find other ways to fund and make the smartphone. The VP said, “If we don’t make the $32 million target, we will not make the phone on our own.” In the report, Canonical described the Ubuntu Edge as a small “side project” for the company. The company is reportedly working with an unnamed “major manufacturer” to make a phone with more modest specs, as well as less sapphire glass.
The risk factor of the project was high from the start. And the promises being made were just as considerable. Canonical had promised that the Edge would be the first smartphone which could also be used to power a PC and will have the full-blown Ubuntu PC OS baked in. And if the Ubuntu OS wasn’t enough for users, they could have switched to Google’s Android OS, which is also available.
The list of specifications that the Edge would have come with was nothing short of brilliant. The smartphone was set to come with a staggering 128GB of internal storage, 4GB of RAM and the fastest processor available in the market. Till date, Canonical hasn’t even revealed which SoC that would be. The Edge would also come with a 4.5-inch display with 720 x 1280 resolution ratio. Thrown in was a dual-LTE antenna, Stereo speakers, a sapphire glass screen and a silicon-anode battery. It should be noted that there is only one other smartphone in the market that even comes with sapphire glass, which is reportedly unbreakable. Silicon-anode batteries are supposed to be the next step in battery technology, as it packs a lot more power in the same space occupied by current lithium-ion batteries.
Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth believes Edge has already made a difference. "This campaign lets enthusiast consumers signal their interest to a mobile industry that caters overwhelmingly to the mainstream. It’s making it clear that we’re no longer satisfied with minor updates; we’re looking for true innovation and we’re ready to pay for it. And that message is getting through.”
One thing is for sure, the project has definitely given the company a lot of press and created brand awareness. And the project was ambitious and it can only be hoped that Canonical will be able to bring the lofty features of the Edge to the market sooner rather than later.
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