Canonical is taking its innovative smartphone design for its Ubuntu Edge directly to potential customers. The company has launched a crowdfunding campaign to build the original batch of its planned devices.
Canonical hopes to raise $32 million within 30 days, to build 40,000 units. It will use the Indiegogo service and the Paypal electronic payment service to collect the contributions.
"We'll use crowdfunding to see if there is a real market," said Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu founder, in a press conference. "Today there are very few people who decide what will go into the next generation of handsets. And they can't possible get it right all the time. With crowdfunding, we can connect the passionate forward-thinking types directly to manufacturers."
Contributors who pledge $600 on Tuesday, or $830 for the remaining 29 days, will get one of the devices, which are due to be shipped in May 2014. Canonical will not build the phones should the full $32 million not be donated, though handset manufacturers have indicated a willingness to build the phones on their own, should they receive sufficient interest from the phone carriers.
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