Just when you thought the Smartphone market was essentially reduced to a duopoly dominated by Samsung and Apple, along comes Canonical to give us, consumers, more choices. What Canonical is attempting to do is differentiate itself from the other smartphones with its concept of "convergence". Convergence is the notion of using the same operating system across multiple devices such as the desktop, tablet, smartphone and even the TV. To some degree, we've seen how this occurs when we can use a Samsung Galaxy smartphone to operate a Samsung TV. Or Microsoft launching Windows 8 to work on its tablets and PC's. However, none of those products have brought "convergence" into a solution as elegant as Canonical's user interface as demonstrated in the video below.
With the development of the Ubuntu Touch operating system, the ability to use your smartphone as a PC is appealing, particularly if you are an enterprise mobile user. I used to work as an Industrial Engineer for a major Transportation company which required me to travel across the United States to work on Engineering projects at majors hubs. I can tell you how cumbersome it was for me, being petite in stature, to have to lug around my suitcase, my portable printer and heavy laptop. My arms would be screaming at my body for mercy especially having to take mile long treks within the Dallas-Fortworth airport hub to reach my outgoing flight gate. If I had had an Ubuntu Phone which turned into a desktop or a lightweight Chromebook which could VPN to a corporate network, my arms would have been thanking me during that period of my life.
In the Detroit area, the Northamerican International Auto show displays the "concept" cars of the future just as the CES show in Las Vegas displays new "concept" electronics and computers. Ubuntu came out with their "concept" product in the form of the Ubuntu Edge which they tried to bring to market through crowdfunding last July. Here is what it was supposed to look like.
Although the crowdfunding efforts failed to bring Ubuntu Edge to market, it was more of a "high end" concept of their convergence philosophy anyway. Rest assured, Ubuntu Phone will eventually be produced for consumers like me who are awaiting such a device. The Ubuntu Phone will based on the Ubuntu Touch operating system which has been in "unstable" release for developers and tech enthusiasts to play with on the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 phones since October 17, 2013, The first full release is scheduled for release April 17, 2014, which should work on both tablets and phones certified by Canonical.
The Community Manager for Ubuntu has reportedly said he doesn't expect to see an Ubuntu Phone to be shipped by major OEMs and Handset Carriers before 2015. However, there is the possibility that smaller OEM's who serve smaller markets will bring Ubuntu Phone to market sooner. One rumored OEM is Chinese Manufacturer Meizu, displaying photos of Ubuntu Touch running on their MX3 model. Here is what it looks like so far. Wish this preview showed a more in depth look of the features highlighted by Mark Shuttleworth in the previous videos above.
For those of you who are Android lovers, keep in mind that Ubuntu also has the Ubuntu for Android operating system in development. One of the future possibilities of convergence, is using your existing Android phone when you are operating in phone mode and later dual booting it into Ubuntu to use as a PC when connected to a monitor, mouse and keyboard. Just thinking of the possibilities as demonstrated by Ubuntu, gives us, consumers, a lot to look forward to in the Ubuntu world.
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