Where will the founder of UbuntuEdge fail to raise funds?

The crowdfunding project UbuntuEdge has raised an unprecedented amount of $12.6 million, but it still fails. It is 32 million less than the target funding amount of $20 million. In other words, the project should have sold 40,000 UbuntuEdge mobile phones, in the end, only 17,215 sales were achieved. Due to funding failure, the full amount of money raised by UbuntuEdge will be returned to the donor. The failure of the project did not result in Canonical founder Mark & middot; Saudi Voss

The crowdfunding project Ubuntu Edge has raised $12.6 million in an unprecedented amount, but it still fails. It is 32 million less than the target funding amount of $20 million. In other words, the project should have sold 40,000 Ubuntu Edge mobile phones, in the end, only 17,215 sales were achieved. Due to funding failure, the full amount of money raised by Ubuntu Edge will be returned to the donor.

The failure of the project did not allow Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, to abandon persistence. Before the project deadline, Mark accepted an interview with The Guardian reporter, saying that if the project fails, "There is no doubt that it will still create the highest fundraising record so far, of course, it will also be the project that is farthest from the target fund-raising amount." Previously, the highest crowdfunding amount was recorded by the smart watch Pebble on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and the total fundraising amount of Ubuntu Edge was $2 million higher than that of the smart watch Pebble. Of course, the Pebble Project's final fundraising success is another thing.

Related reading:

Ubuntu Edge Mobile Phone graphic impression all metal cool black http://www.linuxidc.com/Linux/2013-08/88810.htm

Canonical seeks to raise $32 million to make a smartphone Ubuntu Edge http://www.linuxidc.com/Linux/2013-07/87760.htm

Canonical CEO Jane Silber talked about Ubuntu Edge http://www.linuxidc.com/Linux/2013-07/87898.htm in an interview with CNBC

Canonical added a new $50 specification http://www.linuxidc.com/Linux/2013-07/88128.htm In the Ubuntu Edge funding project

Saudi Voss insisted that although the Ubuntu Edge project failed, operators and mobile phone manufacturers did intend to develop mobile phones running the mobile Linux system, they are not interested in the high-end "super cell phone" that the Ubuntu Edge project wants to build ".

 

The Ubuntu Edge smartphone is expected to have 128 GB of memory and support Android and Ubuntu mobile operating systems. It can be used as a desktop after being connected to the monitor. If the crowdfunding program Ubuntu Edge successfully raised $32 million, Canonical will launch the mobile phone in May 2014.

 

As of last Monday, Saudi Voss is still expecting a mobile phone manufacturer or players in the industry to drop $20 million in the last minute, bringing the project back to life. "There are still many companies in the industry interested in our projects, which will bring us closer to our goals," he said. "But if the deadline still doesn't improve, we can't do anything." The project was aborted with no miracle.

 

Linux challenger

 

The operating systems of Android and Firefox are not very optimistic about in Saudi Arabia, he believes that the Ubuntu Mobile system will be the best choice for users who "Buy a smart phone but only use it as a normal phone, these users account for 25% of the total amount of the smartphone market. Because Ubuntu Edge is designed to be used not only as a mobile phone but also as a PC, it will eventually win this low-end market.

At the end of the Ubuntu Edge mobile crowdfunding project, only Bloomberg information company invested $0.8 million to buy 115 Ubuntu Edge mobile phones in the name of an enterprise. In addition, three unnamed groups invested US dollars each in the name of "Enterprise participants" to purchase 10 Ubuntu Edge mobile phones.

Most of the other funds come from individuals who bought Ubuntu Edge phones at a unit price of between 600 and 830 US dollars (the unit price for the first day was 600 US dollars, and the price rose after the sale of 5044 phones ). At the final stage of funding, Canonical launched a 695 yuan Thanksgiving price to encourage donors to participate more actively in the project.

 

"We once had some behind-the-scenes support from the industry," savesworth told reporters. "However, the crowdfunding project is short of time and the target amount is set to high, which is determined by the manufacturing cost of high-end equipment."

 

He believes that existing smartphones are too expensive. "For example, from a next generation of mobile phones such as Motorola's Moto X, we can see that the prices of brand Mobile Phone electronic devices are high. The mobile hardware industry still has a high profit margin, which does not exist in the personal computer industry. The profit margins of the mobile phone industry are all in brand maintenance and distribution of transportation-the distribution in this industry is far less efficient than that in the personal computer industry ."

 

"The mobile phone market has a dual-headed monopoly between Android and apple. Blackberry and Nokia are still struggling. In addition, there are three Linux Mobile phone operating systems: Firefox, Tizen and Ubuntu Mobile. From conversations with people in the industry, we can conclude that they are willing to accept Android alternatives. Android end users do not seem to be emotionally dependent on the operating system. The use of Android does not produce a network effect similar to the use of Windows-in 1990s, when some people started using Windows, others had to follow suit ."

 

25% market share

 

For carriers, Amos targets users with a market share of 25%. These users only use a smart phone as a normal mobile phone. They will not purchase applications or use traffic. Service providers feel that these users are very difficult to serve, because although they have bought smart phones, they will not bring traffic and service income to service providers.

 

He believes that these 25% of users are ideal users of the Ubuntu Mobile system.

 

The reporter asked: Does this mean that the Ubuntu Mobile system targets low-end users, rather than the high-end users previously targeted by the Ubuntu Edge project? "We are considering high-end mobile phones, not super phones like Ubuntu Edge. Ubuntu Edge is like an advanced concept car. It is even more forward-looking than a formula-1 racing car, because formula-1 still has 40% people to control. At present, we are making every effort to turn Mobile phones using Ubuntu Mobile system into car drivers. Of course, I really want to see the Ubuntu Edge Mobile phone available, but I know that most users of the Ubuntu Mobile system will not come from the Ubuntu Edge Mobile phone, but from the retail business.

 

He predicted that Ubuntu would be more popular than taize, which has been extended by Android, Firefox, or Samsung, because "Android is fragmented. Each mobile phone manufacturer will make certain changes to it. Android has been trying to build a clear and continuous user experience, but it has not been successful. Mobile phone operators believe that these 25% of users will want to use Mobile phones installed on Ubuntu Mobile ."

 

At the same time, he also pointed out that the weakness of the Firefox operating system is that "everything is done through a browser, and it may not be recognized as a mobile browser when surfing the Internet, thus, you cannot jump to the website's mobile phone version-so you will see the desktop display page on the mobile phone screen. The Ubuntu system uses a WebKit-based browser (similar to Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome), so it displays the pages browsed by mobile phones ."

 

Saudi Voss mentioned the names of many brand mobile phone manufacturers and said these manufacturers have presented their Ubuntu prototypes to mobile phone operators in the United States. "There are already 12 mobile phone carriers who want to use Ubuntu," he added, "but they have not yet agreed to launch Ubuntu ."

 

So what is the unique selling point of Ubuntu Mobile? If Apple provides "computers and endless applications that can be placed in the pockets", Android provides similar services to Apple, but its services are built on Google's open source; nokia provides the most advanced camera functions in smartphones. So what is provided by Mobile phones using the Ubuntu Mobile system? "The Ubuntu mobile phone provides a concise and clear user experience. You can do everything you want on an ordinary mobile phone, is an extension of the user experience of desktops and tablets."

 

Where is Enterprise Support?

 

In the end, the Ubuntu Edge project only received the investment of one enterprise user (the minimum investment for enterprise users is USD 80 thousand). Does the lack of enterprise support mean that Canonical has failed in business? Most organizations cannot approve a $80 thousand to $ project in just one month. "Bloomberg (the first and only enterprise user in the project) is amazing," he pointed out, "I think they are involved in this project because they see the possibility of restructuring the IT department. They have already done a great job ."

 

He insisted that the idea behind Ubuntu Edge, that is, the idea that a mobile phone can be used as a desktop computer at the same time, will be realized. "McKinsey did a survey four years ago to see if people would give up carrying their laptop with their smartphones. At that time, the proportion of "yes" was unexpectedly high. Now they do the same survey once a year, but the answer "yes" is declining year by year ."

 

The reporter pointed out that this downward trend is probably due to the fact that the iPad had not yet appeared during the first investigation by McKinsey in 2009. Tablet computers have now become the second most popular mobile device. Therefore, people no longer need to choose between their laptops and mobile phones, but prefer to take their tablets out. "We think that people are looking for a better user experience and they want to connect their mobile phones to a large screen at any time, display your input directly on the screen. You just need to connect your phone to a keyboard and use it as a computer ."

 

However, the cruel reality shows that implementing the functions of Ubuntu Edge phones is too costly. Although this project is far-reaching, it can only end without any problems.

 

However, Saudi Arabia is still fearless. He is trying to make carriers and Mobile phone manufacturers accept Ubuntu Mobile systems, "this is a challenging proposal. I was born to be willing to accept the challenge ."