Ubuntu Edge – Canonical’s planned dual-booting smartphone – can only roll off the production line next year if another $20 million is raised in the few days.
Whether or not it makes its goal is down to people like you – those who’ve yet to pledge.
In an attempt to give you some thought material on why you might want to get behind the project, here are our 5 top reasons…
1. You Can Make The Future Ubuntu
You don’t need to be a soothsayer to know that computing convergence – the idea that one device can be capable of doing the jobs of several – is going to happen. The timeline of technology is peppered with proof of this. From cameras being added to phones, to phones that can power laptops, etc.
Google are edging closer to a converged OS across phones, tablets, laptops and TVs with Chrome OS and Android. Microsoft are attempting to refine their tablet/PC hybrid in Windows 8, and Apple used the underpinnings of OS X as the basis for their mobile OS.
But none of the above have quite reached the apex of possibility.
With enough power inside, one phone could double-up as a desktop PC when connected to a monitor, putting the files and features of a phone on the desktop, and the files & features of a desktop on a phone.
Ubuntu Edge doesn’t want to wait. It wants to bring this ‘converged future’ into the now, and put it into the hands of tech enthusiasts and early adopters.
So while contributing to this campaign might seem like you’re enabling an elite to have something you won’t ever be able to (the Edge will only be sold via IndieGoGo during this campaign), in the long-term, everyone, including you, will benefit.
2. Pay As Little As a Starbucks
Pledging to the Ubuntu Edge campaign doesn’t have to cost the earth the price of a mid-spec laptop.
Having a spare $700 burning a hole in your pocket isn’t requisite to contribute: you can pledge as little or as much as you like.
Skip a coffee at lunch and give the $2 to Ubuntu Edge; miss out on the take-away Mexican for dinner and, voila, that’s another $15.
Smaller contributions might not weight the scales in favour of guaranteed success but every extra dollar that the project does get is another dollar that shows tangible demand for Canonical’s vision of converged computing.
3. You’ll Be Making History
We all know that $32 million was going to be a mountainous climb for Canonical, but whether it ends up scaled or not one thing is assured: Ubuntu Edge will go down in history as one of the biggest, boldest and most successful crowd-funding efforts ever.
And while a couple of dollars chucked in the direction of the project probably won’t lead to Mark Shuttleworth’s face being carved into the Silicon Valley equivalent Mount Rushmore, it will help Ubuntu drag the future kicking and screaming into the now.
A handset with impeccable specs will be manufactured ahead of the schedule that the mobile industry is content with following. That’s something worth investing in, right?
4. You Have Nothing to Lose
The best bit about pledging to this campaign is that you literally have nothing to lose.
If the campaign fails to raise every solitary cent of its $32m target by August 21st you get your money back. All of it. Every dime & dollar.
At the worst, you’ll be $695 out-of-pocket for a few days (as IndieGoGo ‘holds’ your payment).
Your gamble, however small, challenges the duopoly of iOS and Android.
5. You’ll Get Something Special
Best case scenario: Ubuntu Edge reaches its goal and, depending on how much you pledged, the ‘formula one’ of smartphones is in your hands next May.
Nice motivation, right?
Even if you didn’t donate that much you could still have something special to look forward to. $50 nabs you a t-shirt, while $20 gets your name goes on a website somewhere.
And if you tossed in something lower than those – well, you get some serious respect from us if nothing else.