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Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

indiegogo.com

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Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#41

Post by mariusz331 »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #36
oracuk wrote: post #16

I hope this isn't unfair but.. Does this mean that Canonical either don't believe enough in Ubuntu Edge to raise the $20m difference themselves or that Canonical do believe in it but are not able to raise $20m? I have to admit I am skeptical about the commitment of a large, established, company to a product that they are not willing to put their own skin in the game to develop. However, I can understand and have part…

You're assuming that the $32m would have been enough to fund the project entirely, but that's not necessarily the case. Imagine a scenario where Canonical budgeted the project at $50m, deciding that they'd be willing to invest up to $18m of their own money in addition to the Indiegogo cash. In this case, they would have plenty of skin in the game, and yet they wouldn't be willing to go even further to shore up the we…

It would have had to been because:

"The Ubuntu Edge is an exclusive production run, available only through Indiegogo."

Unless they want to lose money or plan to monetize some other way.

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#42

Post by bbrks »

harrytuttle wrote: post #39
pavlov wrote: post #33

I don't need another phone but I like the project, so I gave my money once it became clear that they're not going to reach the $32 million goal. How IndieGogo works is that they charge the money immediately but refund it if the campaign doesn't reach its goal. So basically I lent $725 to IndieGogo for a week. Expressing support for Ubuntu in "real money" won't get cheaper than this!

So IndieGogo works by pocketing the interest rather than you. Not a bad business model.

Or taking a nice 4%[1] cut if it does succeed.

[1] http://www.indiegogo.com/how-pricing-works-on-indiegogo

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#43

Post by voltagex_ »

zx2c4 wrote: post #17
Aldo_MX wrote: post #8

I liked the idea, but I refuse to use a phone without a landscape physical keyboard. Virtual keyboards are awful. All of them. They take too much screen real state away from me, yet they're small enough to make me struggle when trying to write something complex like my secure password ... Swype and similar options are not an option either, because I write in different languages, and no matter how good the text predic…

Likewise. My N950 has an incredible keyboard -- it even have a proper control key -- but its operating system is completely dead in the water. There don't seem to be any modern Android phones that run on GSM and have physical keyboards. The Phonon Q has its SIM card soldered to the phone. I just ordered a Galaxy S Relay off ebay, which is last year's hardware and its physical keyboard is supposed to be kind of bad an…

Finally, someone who really gets it. Now our last hope for the next N9x0 is Jolla.

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#44

Post by harrytuttle »

bbrks wrote: post #42
harrytuttle wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So IndieGogo works by pocketing the interest rather than you. Not a bad business model.

Or taking a nice 4%[1] cut if it does succeed. [1] http://www.indiegogo.com/how-pricing-works-on-indiegogo

Even better. Interest and commission.

I genuinely wish I'd thought of it.

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#45

Post by awsm »

SteveDeFacto wrote: post #24
bbx wrote: post #7

Genuine off-topic question: why didn't they go through Kickstarter, to potentially reach more users (although a $32M goal is huge)?

I think they get to keep the money they raised even though they didn't meet the goal.

They announced all payments will be refunded by PayPal within 5 days.

> "We’ve been assured by Paypal that all refunds will be processed within five working days."[1]

[1] http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge?c=activity#act...

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#46

Post by mercurial »

martin-adams wrote: post #38

$32 mil is a lot to aim for, but their goal was to see if there is an marketplace for cutting edge technology where innovation can really thrive. If you lowered the threshold then it starts to lose what they set out to prove - is the industry too scared to innovate because they will lose their market share. They have proved there is a market for £12 mil on a product that is only a concept at this stage. Had this prod…

I don't know. I believe that "phones that can replace a computer" are years away still. So you are left with a Linux phone, and I'd bet the Jolla people to get it right. Also, I haven't tried Ubuntu Touch but the little I've seen of Unity hasn't really blown me away.

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#47

Post by eb0la »

fetbaffe wrote: post #20
mariuolo wrote: post #12

What now?

Firefox OS!

I seriously doubt FFOS can do something like the Ubuntu Edge in the next 2-3 commercial cycles.

Canonical has been working for years on polishing a ARM distribution, and FFOS is just starting now and the amount of work needed to use a FFOS device as a computer is (today) non-trivial; plus you'll need some support from at least a hardware vendor, and carrier interested in selling the device/having the device in its own network

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#48

Post by krichman »

lmartel wrote: post #14

Speculation: they didn't want the money, they wanted the buzz. They didn't even have all their parts picked out, did they? But they'll be able to use this for leverage with manufacturers/investors/whatever. 12 million in "sales" in a month with no marketing (or product)!

What if they picked a goal they purposely thought they wouldn't reach to test the market on a kickstarting platform and prevent a third-party marketplace from taking a percentage of sales?

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#49

Post by Aldo_MX »

helipad wrote: post #27
Aldo_MX wrote: post #8

I liked the idea, but I refuse to use a phone without a landscape physical keyboard. Virtual keyboards are awful. All of them. They take too much screen real state away from me, yet they're small enough to make me struggle when trying to write something complex like my secure password ... Swype and similar options are not an option either, because I write in different languages, and no matter how good the text predic…

There's a language button right on my Nexus 4 keyboard for fast-switching between languages. I would never need to write in more than one language in the same message, so it's as simple as 2 taps to switch the entire phone dictionary. I'm not sure how it could get any easier?

  I would never need to write in more than one language in the same message.
Bon Appetite! Wait, are those quesadillas of surimi?

Ok, this was an exaggerated example using French, English, Spanish and Japanese (although most people would consider the message as English only due to the fact that the words/concepts don't exist in English).

But being honest I find myself often writing messages that combine words of different languages because the words/concepts doesn't exist in the language I'm writing.

In the past I didn't even had to think about it, because I simply wrote what I wanted to write, but the fact that I'm forced to struggle with text prediction has made me put more attention in those details.

Re: Ubuntu Edge fails to raise goal

#50

Post by zx2c4 »

voltagex_ wrote: post #43
zx2c4 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise. My N950 has an incredible keyboard -- it even have a proper control key -- but its operating system is completely dead in the water. There don't seem to be any modern Android phones that run on GSM and have physical keyboards. The Phonon Q has its SIM card soldered to the phone. I just ordered a Galaxy S Relay off ebay, which is last year's hardware and its physical keyboard is supposed to be kind of bad an…

Finally, someone who really gets it. Now our last hope for the next N9x0 is Jolla.

Yep. It remains to be seen whether or not they release SailfishOS for the N950. I sure hope so.
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