The Ubuntu Edge gamble: will it be a dud or not?

[Netstatus]

Thanks for sharing the video. The advertised specs are impressive.

[forrestcupp]

Of course it will be a dud. The smartphone/tablet industry is a stupid industry to try to get a new start in right now. Even the iPhone is beginning to fail with only a 13.2% market share down from 16.6% last year, while Android is gaining at a 79.3% share up from 69.1% last year. The only other real player is Blackberry, which is hurting right now. If something as huge as the iPhone is failing that badly, do you really think an Ubuntu device is going to come riding in as the mighty hero? It doesn't have a chance. The only chance they have is that they will be like the Ouya and sell to a very niche market that is just barely enough to not take a loss. It will be like the Dell deal, and the only people who will buy one are people who are already Ubuntu users.

It's a pretty dumb move in my opinion. But then again, what other options do they really have?

[Gilad_Pellaeon]

It better not be a dud. If this all works, it might give the public a chance to see Ubuntu and how much better it is. Most normal people around don't even know what Linux is, much less what Ubuntu is, and if this succeeds that will change a little bit.

It's going to have some stiff competition already though IMHO in the mobile phone market with the well entrenched iOS and Android having at it, then Mozilla releasing a Firefox OS for phones and now Canonical doing it as well it's going to have to be really good from the get go to impress a lot of people and make them want to switch to it on compatible phones.

And, also you are right a lot of what we would define as "normal" people with normal being those who use Windows and don't want to think out of the Microsoft box and try something different like Ubuntu and realize that, hey, they may want to use it exclusively to get away from the flop that is Windows 8.