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Finance Firm Bloomberg Goes In For $80,000 On Ubuntu Edge Project
DW100 writes "Ubuntu has secured a surprise enterprise backer of its $32m Edge smartphone crowd-funding push with corporate powerhouse Bloomberg signing up for the top tier Enterprise 100 package, worth $80,000. Chief technology officer at Bloomberg Shawn Edwards said the firm wanted to give its support to the innovative open source project as it could have real benefits for its IT workforce." Adds reader nk497: "So far the campaign has raised $8.5 million and has two weeks left to run. Individuals can buy the smartphone-cum-PC for $780 at the moment, but Canonical is also offering business bundles of 100 handsets, including a month of support, for $80,000. Bloomberg is the first business to opt for the bundle — but it will get its money back if the project isn't fully funded." Update: 08/08 12:58 GMT by T : One more note: Canonical has dropped the price to $695 for the remainder of the fundraising campaign.
With 14 days to go, it’s time for our biggest announcement yet. From now until the end of the campaign, we’re fixing the price of the Ubuntu Edge at $695! No limited quantities, no more price changes. You wanted a more affordable Edge, and now you’ve got it.
So of course we’re passing those savings on to you. There’s now a single unlimited $695 Ubuntu Edge perk, which comes with a year’s subscription to LastPass Premium and a place on the Founders page. At the end of the campaign, anyone who’s already pledged more than $695 for the phone will be offered a refund of the difference.
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Bloomberg is the first business to opt for the bundle — but it will get its money back if the project isn't fully funded.
This is no more than free publicity for Bloomberg then. They're pledging to give 80 thousand USD to a project if it gets fully funded. Said project after getting 7 million in the first 24 or 48 hours, has only managed to go up 1 more million in two weeks. And it needs 24 million more in the next two weeks!
Chances of actually having to give the 80 kUSD... close to 0. Free publicity... a lot!
Were the following questions by the FSF ever answered?
"Will the Ubuntu Edge versions of both Android and Ubuntu contain or rely on any proprietary software or proprietary firmware?"
"Will the Ubuntu Edge include any Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) software?"
"Will the device's bootloader be free software?"
"Will the device have Restricted Boot, or will users be able to replace the operating system with a free one of their choice?"
"Will Ubuntu Edge include F-Droid, the free software Android application repository, as part of a commitment to promote and recommend only free software?"
"There can be little doubt that union activities lead to continuous and progressive inflation." F. A. Hayek
What is your concern with sapphire glass? It should be a big improvement over what is used on phones now.
Sapphire glass is *more* brittle than Gorilla Glass, so if you thought edge-drop screen shatters were a problem before, watch out. You will never be able to scratch the screen, but it will be so sensitive to shock that you will need substantial protection anyway.
The reason sales have stalled is because not everyone is stupid.
You live in a fantasy.
I don't really understand why sales have stalled as this is going to be 2-3 years ahead of the market.
So they are going to magically come out with a phone 2 or 3 years ahead of the market ... when they aren't even currently in the market and have no experience doing what they claim they are going to do. And they claim they are going to do it far better than the people who produce the hardware itself?
Canonical is some how going to get Samsung (or whoever) to make magical new hardware that they themselves don't sell? Its not like Canonical can fab chips or make AMOLED displays or any of the other related bits.
Only a fool and his followers make and believe statements like these.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager