Ubuntu-powered high-end phones from an unnamed OEM coming next year

[Himanshu Arora]

Canonical on Tuesday announced that the company has entered an agreement with a smartphone maker to get Ubuntu Touch, its mobile operating system, out in the market. "We have concluded our first set of agreements to ship Ubuntu on mobile phones," founder Mark Shuttleworth told CNET. He did not disclose the name of the OEM, but said that the company's mobile OS will be available on high-end phones sometime next year.

He also shared that the company is already in broad-level discussions with at least four other "household brands" that sell a lot of phones all over the world.

               

Ubuntu Touch OS is the mobile version of Ubuntu -- the popular Linux distribution. It uses Qt5-based touch user interface and same core technologies as its desktop counterpart. The USP of this mobile operating system is that it provides a full fledged Ubuntu desktop experience when the device is connected to an external monitor.

Canonical's mobile operating system officially arrived in October 2013 but a hardware partner remained unavailable until now. Although the company earlier tried to crowdsource the funding for its ambitious Ubuntu Edge series of smartphones the campaign ultimately fell flat. However, the option to load the OS on Nexus phones was available ever since the preview images were made available in February.

It will be interesting to see the way Canonical positions itself in the fiercely competitive mobile OS market, which is already dominated by giants like Apple and Google.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/54977-ubuntu-powered-high-end-phones-from-an-unnamed-oem-coming-next-year.html

 

[wastedkill]

Dunno about you but I think if they made it on kickstarter might have had more success, still cant wait for the phones they look amazing!

 

[VitalyT]

This is a no news, while presented without a single reason of why on earth somebody would want to use this OS. As they say - want doesn't get. On my count, it has been 3 years since uBuntu for desktop lost its momentum.

 

[heldeman]

Well done Mark. I cant wait for the phone next year. Now think some one design a new dock station which will take a SSD and a fast Graphic card, power supply and fan. A super computer in your pocket!! When this happen Ubuntu one will make a very large dent in the desktop, laptop, tablet, phone and Ubuntu TV with their one for all systems. Window are only starting to think in that direction, and what about Apple?

 

[Fbarnett]

Hmm what to make of a new phone os. If they are going to launch phones that cost 600 bucks like everybody else why bother? And it might depend on what carrier offers the phone

 

[Guest]

I hope that by high-end they intend to have a convergent device like the Ubuntu edge. either way I am excited Ubuntu touch is a beautiful OS I have it installed on my Nexus 4

 

[hahahanoobs]

I knew the crowdsource funding would fail. The specs were too high and so was the goal. This OS will start with an overseas carrier in China or India, or maybe a small European carrier, but it won't get big in North America. I like the OS a lot, but it won't survive.

 

[heldeman]

This is a no news, while presented without a single reason of why on earth somebody would want to use this OS. As they say - want doesn't get. On my count, it has been 3 years since uBuntu for desktop lost its momentum.

Live and let live. Don't be a troll.

 

[waterytowers]

I hope it survives, it is another alternative to iPhone, Android, and Windows Phones. I don't like Windows Phone or the iPhone experience but Android is ok and has been improving a lot in the last couple of iterations. Something using native C++ could mean better performance per watt than Android, that really is the only thing missing from Android. My Nexus 5 doesn't last a whole day and that is a minimum for a smartphone to become really useful.