Canonical announces first partners to ship Ubuntu phones around the globe

I had a look at their site, but the MX[1,2,3] phone doesn't seem too special in design; it's an iPhone clone like so many others at first glance. Is that just the English market, maybe they have other phones as well?

Do you really have such a clear idea what your Android phone is doing?

I put my money on Mozilla with Firefox OS.

> Linux is barely well known to the general population. Let alone getting them to differentiate the Ubuntu brand.

I think that story changes somewhat on a country-by-country basis. India, for example, has a relatively high Ubuntu adoption rate. Of course, the numbers aren't huge anywhere, and I agree that relying on the Ubuntu brand name alone isn't going to move products.

> Totally different environments that share only the fact they are powered by electricity.

At least in tech companies, specifically web development, that isn't an irrelevant thing. If your personal dev machine is running the same environment as the server where your app is running, that greatly simplifies package dependencies and deployment. If your personal dev machine is also your company-issued phone, that's very convenient.

> While I think we'll get there, we are far away from our smartphones having the power to run a full PC OS with our current workloads. Perhaps Ubuntu is looking too much into the future... personally I think they need the revenue of today's reality.

I think we're already there. With smartphone tech running rich 3D applications and powering 4K displays, I don't think any more horsepower is required for your average word processing/email/web scenario. And if we're not there yet, we certainly will be in under 5 years, and planning for a future that will soon exist is exactly how tech companies get the jump on competition (See: iPhone).

> I won't even comment the phrase about Windows applications as it makes no sense.

It makes perfect sense. Many companies now deliver the standard MS Office suite to employees via cloud solutions like Citrix (http://www.citrix.com/). And with MS and Office heading even further in that direction with native cloud implementations, having a Windows OS is becoming increasingly unnecessary. Having a DESKTOP OS is mandatory, but it doesn't need to be Windows anymore.

If these Ubuntu phones are powerful enough to run a browser smoothly in the desktop configuration, they'll be incredibly useful.

Another potential boon for Ubuntu phones is Steam on Linux. As history shows, the platform with the most games is usually the most successful. As Steamboxes begin to roll out and the platform gains more developer support, owners of Ubuntu phones will find that the device they're already carrying around is also a microconsole.

Canonical already failed to demonstrate that their community gives a damn with their failed crowdfunded flagship phone. I see absolutely nothing to indicate that the community which failed to be impressed with Ubuntu on the "Ubuntu Edge" will provide a solid niche market for it on other devices.

I think smartphones are more than able to meet most needs of users - word processing, browsing, writing emails and so on. The problem with smartphones is NOT processing power, but rather battery - in fact, if it seems that current smartphones are a little underpowered compared to our other gadgets, well, that's because Moore's law doesn't work so well for batteries - however we are talking about plugging in the smartphone in some sort of dock that is also connected to a keyboard and a bigger monitor, so the battery issue becomes moot.

> Another point is that Microsoft, with all its power, can barely break the iOS/Android dominance in mind share.

That's because Windows Phone doesn't bring anything new, while being as restrictive as iOS and lacking apps, plus in my opinion it's still very, very unpolished. I own a Nokia Lumia and I use it as a dumbphone, in addition to my main Nexus.

Mobile careers won't promote it because they've got nothing to gain for doing it, mobile phone makers won't build phones with it because mobile phone makers prefer stuff they can control, users don't want Windows Phone because it brings nothing new and developers don't want to target it because it has to wait in line after - the web, Android and iOS.

> Openness is rarely a worry for smartphone users and developers alike (only a minority of them care and the impact on revenue is probably irrelevant).

The success of Android proves otherwise. Android is right now number 1 in terms of market-share because it is open. Here are some facts:

(1) mobile careers promoted Android heavily because it is open , long before Android was polished or popular (2) mobile phone manufacturers chose Android, long before it was polished or popular, because it is open and so they could adopt it instead of implementing their own shitty iOS alternatives, (3) many Android users loved the ability to install on Android the kind of software that's normally banned on iOS and (4) at least one developer (me) prefers Android because it is open-source, because it allows app installs from third-party sources and because you have to be a dumb fuck to depend entirely on proprietary platforms and walled gardens.

HOWEVER, I do agree that a new OS cannot win on openness alone, because for better or worse, Android is fairly open (Amazon can testify ;-)) - maybe mobile careers could see a way out of Google Play's grip on Android, or maybe they could see it as a way to get out of Samsung's shadow, however a new OS does need more than this.

But I also think that Ubuntu brings something interesting to the table - I do want a full-fledged computer that I can carry in my pocket and that I can later connect to a full-sized keyboard and a big monitor and have a full fledged OS ready to use.

I disagree a little bit: my Samsung Galaxy III has a very nice Java IDE on it, and I can plug it into a monitor with a HDMI adapter.

I totally like the idea of in the future having just a phone,with standard docking stations when a keyboard, large monitor, bluray burners, whatever... are needed. Something like a Chromebook but even more portable.

> Pundits tell me nobody wants that, see Windows PCs, tablets, phones are servers. Right? </sarcasm>

People don't want the same user interface for phones, tablets and PCs, but they are likely to want access to the same underlying services. Especially if that means you can share access to data between different form factors seamlessly, without going to the cloud. Write a document on keyboard, then take your phone off to proof-read it on the couch. Receive an email while you're away from home, start writing a response, when you get home finish it using a keyboard and full screen. Download a PDF on your desktop, and then a week later while you're on the bus, or at work, remember it, and be able to read it straightaway. All your documents, bookmarks, open tabs, music in one place. Only one location to back-up. And so on.

I think it'd be useful.

Give the baby a chance to be born before you declare it ugly.

Maybe not, but I imagine mobile and table would be so profitable if it took off that expanding would be easy.

They dont, they merged all three. After all touch is the future ...

MeeGo tried the kind of collaboration you mention and it failed horribly. Jolla can use some of the leftovers, but the point about the feasibility and usefulness of this kind of collaboration is already made.

At least one of these platforms needs to become technically viable and then gain traction. I don't think that imposing a broken MeeGo process in such early days is going to help either platform, it could well kill both and then Linux-phone enthusiasts are left with nothing.

It's not a bad thing for "Linux phone" to get multiple chances rather than just one. If one doesn't turn out well, at least all our eggs were not in that one basket.

If we are lucky enough that multiple Linux phone vendors get traction, then it is feasible they could collaborate on interoperability.

If either ever achieves enough market share to make it a zero-sum game between them (traversing some pretty steep barriers to entry left by incumbents), that's a good problem to have and the competition can encourage development for a little while until the issue is settled one way or the other.

Sniping at products which haven't even had a chance yet certainly is not going to help.

It's just Ubuntu but (presumably) on ARM so ... yes.

I have known for a long time that they were in Canonical's Carrier Advisory Group, and I can only wonder what use they have for Ubuntu phones. I think they didn't have much success in selling Windows Phone handsets on-contract, so maybe they are planning on offering Ubuntu as the third OS choice in place of Windows Phone (as in, Android/iOS/Ubuntu instead of Android/iOS/WP).

well, the announce also talks about Telecom Italia, and I'm more baffled about this...