After years of teases, promises and demos, the company
has locked up the first two manufacturers of Ubuntu
phones. Meizu and BQ Readers will be releasing
handsets with the Linux-based OS installed on them
sometime in 2014. Details about release date, price and
specs are still to be determined, but we were told to
expect more info at Mobile World Congress (which
kicks off this weekend). The list of supporting carriers
also remains a mystery, but at least we know that there
will be consumer-ready Ubuntu phones on the market
before the end of the year. Mark Shuttleworth,
Canonical's founder, is keeping things close to his
chest, but he did say that two more manufacturers with
"household names" should be coming on board in 2015.
The bad news is that neither of these manufacturers has
a large presence in US, so the chances of picking up a
high-end Ubuntu phone on Verizon in 2014 is pretty
slim. But Meizu is well established in China and should
help the fledgling OS build visibility, while BQ Readers
has a presence in Spain. Shuttleworth said that part of
the reason these two particular companies were chosen
was because of their "tactical" method for delivering
handsets to specific markets with carefully targeted
features and specs.
The next big challenge will be luring developers to the
ecosystem. Shuttleworth aims to have the top 50 mobile
apps on Ubuntu by the end of the year, which is a
noble, but ambitious goal. Right now, big names
Evernote, LastPass and Grooveshark are already
enlisted, but there's still a lot of work to do. Presumably
Canonical still has a few cards up its sleeve for MWC,
so stay tuned.
SOURCE: Ubuntu
No comments:
Post a Comment