Canonical's ambitious Ubuntu Edge campaign fails despite raising $12.8 million

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 goal

While 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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First batch of Jolla Sailfish smartphones sold out, follow-up campaign a possibility

Finnish startup Jolla has now closed the first batch of orders before the general release of the Sailfish OS-sporting smartphone. The team, which was assembled from Nokia's abandoned MeeGo experiment, is now looking at planning a follow-up campaign.

Back in May, Jolla launched its “Other Half” pre-sale campaign to understand the demand for its Sailfish OS smartphone. It also hoped to find committed buyers ahead of the launch of its first device. Jolla is not giving out the exact number of devices that were pre-booked due to “customer confidentiality”, according to ZDNet. However, a spokesperson for the startup has said that the normal size of a production batch for a mobile device vendor is 50,000 units.

Consumers in the European Union as well as Norway and Switzerland were earlier offered a deal wherein they could make a €100 ( Rs 8,610 approx) down payment to get a €100 voucher off the overall €399 (Rs 34,230 approx) price of the device as well as "priority pre-order status".  

Jolla has closed the booking orders for the first batch of its Sailfish OS running smartphone

While the actual number of pre-orders is still unconfirmed, Jolla has said that both consumers and “selected sales channels” have bought out the first batch. The smartphones are stipulated for delivery by the end of the year. The startup has also claimed that it received pre-orders from 136 countries. This is up from the 118 countries that were earlier reported.

It should be noted that the €100 down payment option was only open to consumers in the EU, Norway and Switzerland, though. Consumers from outside these countries had the option of booking the device without a down payment, according to what a Jolla spokesperson told the source. 

So far, the only carrier that has committed to sell the smartphone once it is available is DNA, one of Finland’s largest operators. The startup is looking at expanding its carrier support, but the spokesperson would not expand on what the startup meant by "selected sales channels". The spokesperson did say that Jolla was in talks with "several other operators in various countries".

The startup’s CEO, Pienimäki, has given disappointed fans who may have missed out on the first batch some hope, though. According to the source report, the Jolla headhoncho said, "For those, who missed the first opportunity, we are now doing our best to offer a second chance, a new batch of Jolla smartphones later in the autumn. I encourage everyone interested in Jolla to sign up at jolla.com and be the first to know about any new developments, such as the opening of the next pre-sales campaign."

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HTC hires Robert Downey Jr. to spearhead new Here’s to Change marketing campaign

HTC has announced a new brand marketing campaign, introducing the “Here’s To Change,” tagline along with a new TV ad featuring Iron Man himself, actor Robert Downey Jr.. Downey isn’t just the star of the ads as according to the press release, he’ll be working with HTC’s marketing agency 171 Worldwide to help, “Shape the [campaign’s] creative direction.”

The first phase is based around ads which play with the HTC acronym. No longer will it be associated with High Tech Computer Corporation, as many, “playful” interpretations will be introduced. In the brief teaser ad which you can see below, some, “subversive thinking,” gives us Humungous Tinfoil Catamaran instead, so you can see where it’s going with this idea.

After all the fun and games, we’ll see ads related to HTC’s unique features, such as BlinkFeed and HTC Zoe, before moving on to those which show HTC hardware, “Empowering individuals to drive change in their own lives.” The first full advert will make its debut on YouTube later this week.

HTC, which has been struggling to keep up with Samsung in the smartphone market, hired a new Chief Marketing Officer earlier this year, kicked out its old marketing agency, and confirmed it would be dropping the aging Quietly Brilliant tagline. New CMO Benjamin Ho said the new PR push, known as Marketing 2.0, would be more bold, as the firm hadn’t made enough noise about its products in the past.

Big name stars acting as spokespeople isn’t anything new in the tech world, with BlackBerry working closely with Alicia Keys, Intel with Will.i.am, and Microsoft with just about anyone who’ll sign on the dotted line. Downey Jr. has signed a two-year deal with HTC.

Currently, the Here’s to Change program has to focus on the HTC One, but the flagship phone will soon be joined by the HTC One Mini, plus a larger version, dubbed the HTC One Max, is rumored to be on its way before the end of the year.

Andy's fascination with mobile tech began in the 90s, at a time when SMS messages were considered cutting edge, but it would be a decade before he would put finger-to-keyboard as a technology writer. In the interim he wrote about travel, formulated strong opinions about films and owned a series of audacious cars.

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