Ubuntu Phone Will Be A Big Success, Even If It Never Happens

tl;dr Some reputational gain [for Canonical] is guaranteed. Bloomberg will portray itself as a &quot;forward-thinking company&quot; and is actually better off not getting the 100 phones. &quot;To a significant degree, this episode has already succeeded in being disruptive, in proving that smaller players have new ways of tackling the status quo, and in acting as a very direct and powerful piece of market research for Canonical. &quot;<p>Didn&#x27;t enjoy the article. Basically wraps the actual argument in 1000 words to make it seem smarter.

I am pissed off. I am a life long linux user and Ubuntu has done great work.<p>I am really starting to see Ubuntu used for the desktop in various companies.<p>But nobody gives a shit enough to invest in their technologies. I think edge is a great idea. I will buy (once the phone is available). That is my contribution.

Forbes.com: Defining success down since 2013 :-).

Sale: Global brand exposure, requires an $80,000 down payment, will be refunded in full minus PayPal fees at the end of the campaign.<p>Why aren&#x27;t more big companies seeing this?

Can someone explain to me why this has to be a hardware project? Why can&#x27;t they just make this an OS project and load it on whatever high end phone exists in 2014? Hardware falls outside of Canonical&#x27;s core competency, and as such seems like an inconvenience.

They&#x27;re going to refund the people who paid a higher price than $695 - isn&#x27;t that going to lower the funding amount even if it hits the target?

Ubuntu is becoming the FOSS Google and trying to outreach its goal. Not saying it&#x27;s bad; I&#x27;m just skeptical on how it will work out.