I have been keeping an eye on the Ubuntu Edge Indiegogo campaign for a multitude of reasons. First off, I didn’t know that crowd funding sites even supported a request that big, and I’m so serious when I say that. It is requesting almost four times as much money as the OUYA managed to make on Kickstarter. The next reason is that the the Ubuntu Edge is something that I have dreamt about. We are talking dual booting capabilities, 128GB of RAM, seemless software integration, using your phone as your desktop suite, the whole nine yards. Finally, I wanted to see just how bad the public wanted a Ubuntu phone.
Now it hasn’t done bad by a long shot. With sixteen days left on it’s campaign, it has (at the time of my writing this article) raised a very plausible $8,241,861. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and I’m sure that a number of us would agree. The only problem is, that number out of $32,000,000 is 50% of half of what they need in order to receive funding. Let’s put it into proper perspective here. We’ll say that they were only allowed to rely on one type of pledge in the campaign, and none of the others could be used. I’m going to round these numbers, but in order to reach $32,000,000 in sixteen days, Ubuntu would roughly need another:
- 1.19 Million $20 pledges
- 792,000 $30 pledges
- 475,000 $50 pledges
- $775 pledges are sold out
- 30,000 $780/$790 pledges
- 29,000 $830 pledges
- 17,000 $1,400 pledges
- 2,400 $10,000 pledges
- 297 $80,000 pledges
The numbers go from almost unrealistic to somewhat feasible if you knock on the right doors. Here’s the issue with this though. The first three tiers ($20, $30, $50) are simply because you love Ubuntu and really want to see them make it. You get no phone, but you get your name on the Founders’ page, which is cool. The next available pledge is right under $800. You see that they need right around 30,000, but only 4,500 are available, with 340 already out of the picture. The same goes for the pledges that proceed it. Even the Enterprise ($80,000) pledges, which call for 297, only 50 are available.
Am I saying that it’s outright impossible for this to happen? Not at all. However, it will be an interesting feat if they manage to appeal to a million hearts that simply want to pledge their love for the Open Source giant, and the same applies to the other pledge levels. I just think that for a request that large, their target audience should have been big investors with the means to throw those kinds of dollars around without a care in the world. Things like the OUYA and Minuum Keyboard are good crowd funding ideas. They are products that request sub-seven figure funds, appeal to to consumers because it’s different but very usable, and end up making ten fold what they ask for. This project is something that they should be knocking on the doors of million dollar companies for if they wanted to achieve the bulk of the $32 million goal, with Indiegogo as an option for us regular consumers that really want a phone like this.
Another thing that would have helped is an actual piece of hardware to gauge it with. I mean this phone is so amazing on paper, it almost makes you wonder if it’s possible, and if they would have had a demo video with an actual Ubuntu Edge to show off the raw awesomeness, then I’m sure the pledges would come flooding in. I have no doubt that they can make this happen, but without a piece of hardware to see in action, for a pledge that large, it’s still just a concept at the end of the day.
I’m so excited to see this phone hit the market, and I hope it does by next year. I will pay an ETF on my Sprint contract just to get one. However, as of now, with no hardware and a $32,000,000 request, I just don’t see this becoming a reality in sixteen days unless a million hearts or a couple hundred big names step into the fold financially.
Have you pledged? Will you? Do you think that Ubuntu can pull it off? Let us know in the comments below.