| > Linux is barely well known to the general population. Let alone getting them to differentiate the Ubuntu brand. I think that story changes somewhat on a country-by-country basis. India, for example, has a relatively high Ubuntu adoption rate. Of course, the numbers aren't huge anywhere, and I agree that relying on the Ubuntu brand name alone isn't going to move products. > Totally different environments that share only the fact they are powered by electricity. At least in tech companies, specifically web development, that isn't an irrelevant thing. If your personal dev machine is running the same environment as the server where your app is running, that greatly simplifies package dependencies and deployment. If your personal dev machine is also your company-issued phone, that's very convenient. > While I think we'll get there, we are far away from our smartphones having the power to run a full PC OS with our current workloads. Perhaps Ubuntu is looking too much into the future... personally I think they need the revenue of today's reality. I think we're already there. With smartphone tech running rich 3D applications and powering 4K displays, I don't think any more horsepower is required for your average word processing/email/web scenario. And if we're not there yet, we certainly will be in under 5 years, and planning for a future that will soon exist is exactly how tech companies get the jump on competition (See: iPhone). > I won't even comment the phrase about Windows applications as it makes no sense. It makes perfect sense. Many companies now deliver the standard MS Office suite to employees via cloud solutions like Citrix (http://www.citrix.com/). And with MS and Office heading even further in that direction with native cloud implementations, having a Windows OS is becoming increasingly unnecessary. Having a DESKTOP OS is mandatory, but it doesn't need to be Windows anymore. If these Ubuntu phones are powerful enough to run a browser smoothly in the desktop configuration, they'll be incredibly useful. Another potential boon for Ubuntu phones is Steam on Linux. As history shows, the platform with the most games is usually the most successful. As Steamboxes begin to roll out and the platform gains more developer support, owners of Ubuntu phones will find that the device they're already carrying around is also a microconsole. |
If those phones have x86 processors, that is. Ubuntu phone supports ARM, but Steamboxes certainly won't.