Ubuntu Likely Won't Appear On Phones Until 2015

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Likely Won't Appear On Phones Until 2015

Mark Shuttleworth and other Canonical employees have in the past talked about 2014 as being when Ubuntu Touch will begin appearing on devices... Now that 2014 is here, the word now is that it will likely not be until 2015 when an Ubuntu Phone is coming out of any major device manufacturers...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTU3MTk

[dh04000]

Maybe I am misreading this, but isn't he saying in this quote that its unlikly that a Major OEM will ship, but its still likely/possible tht a smaller one may? That's what he's getting at with the shot-term vs long-term comment. Either way, I wish I got paid enough that an extra $70 a month for a cell phone bill didn't seem crazy to me....

"here is a short-term and longer-term set of goals, I think though.

Longer-term we would love to see the major OEM/Carriers shipping Ubuntu handsets. This is a long road though with many components, and I would be surprised if we see anything like this before 2015. When the major OEMs/Carriers ship, this is when many of the ISVs will be on-board too.

In the shorter-term there are smaller OEMs who serve a smaller region who see great opportunity in Ubuntu, and their costs and risk are smaller for them to trial a device. This is where we will likely see the first handsets shipping."

[zanny]

I think in the any-term we are seeing Ubuntu TV repeat itself all over again.

[Figueiredo]

Converged OS/App ecosystem does provide OEM's which ship all these kinds of devices to drastically reduce costs by sharing so much. I'm sure players such as samsung, lg and sony, would much rather validating all their devices for a single OS than for a multitude of them, if they could.

The lack of android app compatibility though is extremely limiting the reach of ubuntu touch though. I get that they want apps to be made for the OS and feel native and polished, but consumers will se a phone which runs angry birds/bank app/facebook and one that doesn't...

[blackout23]

Converged OS/App ecosystem does provide OEM's which ship all these kinds of devices to drastically reduce costs by sharing so much. I'm sure players such as samsung, lg and sony, would much rather validating all their devices for a single OS than for a multitude of them, if they could.

The lack of android app compatibility though is extremely limiting the reach of ubuntu touch though. I get that they want apps to be made for the OS and feel native and polished, but consumers will se a phone which runs angry birds/bank app/facebook and one that doesn't...

Samsung doesn't need Canonical they will ship their own OS on Phones in 2014 called Tizen. Canonical is simply way to late to the party. Firefox OS is available and will ship on TVs, Tablets and small ARM desktops. Jolla Phone is available. Tizen comes out this year on more Samsung devices. No one simply needs Ubuntu Touch.

[oleid]

I wonder...

Phoronix: Ubuntu Likely Won't Appear On Phones Until 2015

Mark Shuttleworth and other Canonical employees have in the past talked about 2014 as being when Ubuntu Touch will begin appearing on devices... Now that 2014 is here, the word now is that it will likely not be until 2015 when an Ubuntu Phone is coming out of any major device manufacturers...

I wonder if they'd have Ubuntu Phone ready by now if they'd sticked to Wayland instead of developing their own display server Mir?

[zanny]

I wonder if they'd have Ubuntu Phone ready by now if they'd sticked to Wayland instead of developing their own display server Mir?

Their problem isn't having a working OS, you can get images for Nexus devices right now and use it. They just can't get a device vendor to sell devices running it.

Which is exactly what happened with Ubuntu TV, by the way.

[k1l_]

this is a phoronix classic:

Longer-term we would love to see the major OEM/Carriers shipping Ubuntu handsets. This is a long road though with many components, and I would be surprised if we see anything like this before 2015. When the major OEMs/Carriers ship, this is when many of the ISVs will be on-board too.

that does not state, that there will be no ubuntu phone before 2015. it just states, that most probably no major manufacturer (like samsung) or major carrier (like telekom or verizon) will ship a ubuntu phone before 2015.

[akincer]

The key difference is that there is already an established user base for Ubuntu. It is clearly up for debate as to whether or not that translates into a viable mobile market. I think anyone that says "definitely no" is either naive or heavily biased against Canonical. The opposite is true for anyone saying "definitely yes" too.

I would suggest that whether or not they are successful heavily hinges on the convergence. Without it, there simply isn't a compelling reason for people to try a whole new mobile experience when Android and Apple both offer reasonable experiences not to mention some other players on the horizon already mentioned.

Canonical already has the back-end pieces to offer (cloud infrastructure, app market place). It's just the convergence and finished product that's lacking. Oh -- and their ability to market it which can't be overlooked.

They'll get hardware manufacturer takers if they can meet those challenges.

[BlackStar]

The key difference is that there is already an established user base for Ubuntu. It is clearly up for debate as to whether or not that translates into a viable mobile market. I think anyone that says "definitely no" is either naive or heavily biased against Canonical. The opposite is true for anyone saying "definitely yes" too.

I would suggest that whether or not they are successful heavily hinges on the convergence. Without it, there simply isn't a compelling reason for people to try a whole new mobile experience when Android and Apple both offer reasonable experiences not to mention some other players on the horizon already mentioned.

Canonical already has the back-end pieces to offer (cloud infrastructure, app market place). It's just the convergence and finished product that's lacking. Oh -- and their ability to market it which can't be overlooked.

They'll get hardware manufacturer takers if they can meet those challenges.

Well written.

I would go as far as to say that they have not yet shown that they have the technical ability to finish the product they are describing. The vision is great and I support it fully - which is why I was one of the very first backers for Ubuntu Edge - but if they are already pushing back the release date to 2015... I simply don't now.

By 2015 they will be 6 years too late to the Smartphone market. Samsung will have their own OS out, and they will be competing against them, Android, iOS, WinPhone, Jolla and Blackberry. I don't think the market can support so many different players. Blackberry is dying, WinPhone and iOS have flatlined - it's way too competitive.