Ubuntu Edge Smartphone Campaign Ends $19 Million Short

Last week, Canonical was busy boasting that its Indiegogo campaign was the biggest crowdfunding campaign ever (though that's debatable given it wasn't successful in the end). Unfortunately, the support from Ubuntu fans was not enough to bring Canonical's dream to fruition. The company's campaign for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone expired at 11:59pm last night and was more than $19 million short of its goal.

 

Canonical launched its Indiegogo campaign on July 22 with the intention of raising $32,000,000. The company hoped to produce 40,000 devices and promised backers donating $830 a device in May of 2014. Earlier this month, Canonical lowered the price for an Edge phone to $695 in an effort to boost funding. Sadly, it wasn't enough. When the campaign closed last night, it had raised only $12,812,776 of its goal sum. Speaking via Indiegogo, Canonical said that though the Edge won't be released, other Ubuntu devices will be out next year.

"While we passionately wanted to build the Edge to showcase Ubuntu on phones, the support and attention it received will still be a huge boost as other Ubuntu phones start to arrive in 2014," said Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth. "Thousands of you clearly want to own an Ubuntu phone and believe in our vision of convergence, and rest assured you won’t have much longer to wait."

Because the campaign didn't reach its funding goal, the $12,812,776 raised will be returned to those that donated the money. Shuttleworth has said all refunds will be processed within five working days.

  • deftonian
    come on people, donate! You know "ubuntu"! That should have been their slogan. I have some terrible Thursday humor going on, sorry.
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    cool idea, cool product but while i support ubnutu i have to say... they are a big enough company that they shoudl not be crowdfunding products. crowd funding is suppossed to help a buisness by saying hey... i am going to buidl somethign cool or open a cool service but need start up funs so here is somethign cool for a better price than i plan on sellign it... win win but when larger companies do it as a way to presell products and already have a proft when a product is release it means there is no risk, wha tif this would have done great if released on the marke tbut that peopel were just not willing to risk losing money or haivng a sub par product... r and d is risky but don't put its faith in consumers being willign to front you the money fo rit, that is just bad buisness
    Reply
  • joecole1572
    This seems to be a growing trend in the tech and software industry. They come out with crowd funding campaigns asking for over 1 million dollars and they fall flat on their face. I think that campaigns with higher budgets only lead to bigger disappointment.
    Reply
  • Grandmastersexsay
    Linux and out of touch seem to go hand in hand unfortunately.

    What Ubuntu should have done was create a demand for a true smart phone Linux OS by producing ROMs targeted for the top selling phones. Who wouldn't want to be able to run Aircrack on their Galaxy S4? CyanogenMod has over 3 million active users, and that's just a hacked version of Android, not real Linux. $32 million would be a piece of cake to raise with that kind of user base. With the interest Ubuntu could generate from ROMs, they would have phone manufactures lining up around the block.

    All Ubuntu would have to do would be to promote an OS that is built to withstand government intrusion, not aid it like Google and Apple do, and they would have a gold mind.
    Reply
  • cheesyboy
    Are we so naive as to believe this was actually intended to succeed? It was all about raising the profile of Ubuntu and Canonical, and it was a big success in that regard.

    Fair play to them.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    11404599 said:
    What Ubuntu should have done was create a demand for a true smart phone Linux OS by producing ROMs targeted for the top selling phones.

    Nobody wanted the Edge for the software. It's the hardware that made it attractive. The software was always going to be available anyway.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Great hardware, great operating system. But not everyone can afford $695 for a smart phone.
    Reply