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Ubuntu Edge fails to reach $32m crowdfunding target, still breaks records

The Ubuntu Edge has failed to reach its $32 million Indiegogo crowdfunding goal, but still broke records for the amount it raised.

Managing to raise $12,809,906 (£8.22 million) for the Ubuntu Edge, London-based developers Canonical managed to break all crowdfunding records.

The previous record was held by the Pebble smartwatch on Kickstarter, but the funds raised for the Ubuntu Edge surpassed these figures by over $10 million (£6.4 million).

The funds came from 27,488 backers on IndieGogo, supporting Canonical’s plan to make 40,000 Ubuntu Edge smartphones running the Ubuntu OS.

“We raised $12,809,906, making the Edge the world’s biggest ever fixed crowdfunding campaign. Let’s not lose sight of what an achievement that is”, said Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical founder. “Close to 20,000 people believed in our vision enough to contribute hundreds of dollars for a phone months in advance, just to help make it happen. It wasn’t just individuals either: Bloomberg LP gave $80,000 and several smaller businesses contributed $7,000 each. Thank you all for getting behind us.”

The Ubuntu Edge would come with a 4.5-inch 720 x 1,280p resolution screen, running the Ubuntu mobile OS, but also dual-booting Android. It could also transform into a fully-fledged desktop PC running Ubuntu Desktop.

“While we passionately wanted to build the Edge to showcase Ubuntu on phones, the support and attention it received will still be a huge boost as other Ubuntu phones start to arrive in 2014.”

Also packing dual-chip LTE access for US and UK markets, the Ubuntu Edge would have had 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

“Thousands of you clearly want to own an Ubuntu phone and believe in our vision of convergence, and rest assured you won’t have much longer to wait.”

The majority of the Ubuntu Edge funds were generated when the phone’s Indiegogo campaign was first launched. 5,044 customers opted to back the Ubuntu Edge for the first-day only price of $600 (£385), while hundreds more fell for the smartphone for $695 (£446) introduced later.

Next, read 5 reasons why the Ubuntu Edge campaign was actually a big success.

Via: Indiegogo

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