Canonical seeks crowdfunding to develop a smartphone-powered Ubuntu desktop

Aims to raise $32 million to fund “next generation of personal computing.”

Ars Staff – Jul 22, 2013 4:30 pm | 137

The Ubuntu Edge. It's quite black. Credit: Canonical

Canonical is trying to raise $32 million to fund development of a dual-booting, high-end smartphone on crowdsourcing site Indiegogo. Describing the Ubuntu Edge as the “next generation of personal computing,” the smartphone is intended to be a mobile device on the go that’s powerful enough to run a full desktop when docked to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

The Edge’s specifications—still not finalized—are a mix of conventional and high-end. It’ll contain the usual array of sensors (GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass, barometer); LTE, 802.11n, Bluetooth 4, and NFC connectivity; 8MP rear/2MP front cameras; and a 1280×720 4.5-inch screen. So far, so ordinary. However, it’ll also sport the “fastest multi-core CPU,” 4GB RAM, and an enormous 128GB of storage.

The screen will be a bit special, too, as it will be made of sapphire. This is more expensive than glass but substantially more scratch resistant. Only diamond, crystalline boron, and a few other compounds can scratch it.

The specs also claim that the Edge’s battery will have more energy density than typical smartphone batteries due to the use of a silicon anode. The phone itself will, if the renders are anything to judge by, be black, angular, and almost menacing in appearance.

The central premise is that the fast processor, large storage, and relatively generous RAM will result in a phone that is fast enough for desktop computing. As such, it will run the full Ubuntu desktop operating system: just hook up a monitor with HDMI and add a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

Apps between the desktop and mobile environments will be integrated. For example, if you start listening to an album on the Ubuntu desktop, it will continue playback in the smartphone music app. Similarly, e-mail settings and state will be shared between Thunderbird on the desktop and the mobile mail client.

When working in its smartphone guise, the Edge will allow use of either Ubuntu Mobile or Android. At launch, the integration between the desktop and mobile personalities will only exist in Android; Canonical plans to release an update after launch that will bring the same capabilities to Ubuntu Mobile.

The Indiegogo campaign runs for the next 30 days. Again, Canonical is hoping to raise $32 million in total. If you want to back the project, there’s a limited-time offer that allows the purchase of an Ubuntu Edge phone for $600. Once that offer expires, a phone will cost $830, rising to $10,000 if you want to get one of the first 50 to be produced. There’s also an $80,000 package of 100 phones.

Phones are expected to ship in May 2014.

Should the crowdfunding fail, Canonical says that it will refocus its smartphone efforts on existing, commercially available handsets, and there won’t be an Edge at all.