Edge of the Mainstream

The Ubuntu Edge asks the question is there a need for another mobile operating system?

Currently the mobile phone market is made up by four players. Firstly iOs, from Apple, then Android, by Google, Windows phone from Microsoft and finally Blackberry. Ubuntu is taking the gamble that they can become a player in the mobile market of the future. In the next ten years another billion people will join the internet. Most of those will undoubtable join via a mobile device, the question is which one. Android is, theoretically, open source to the phone manufactures but after customisation by the phone companies and cell carriers the pure Android experience becomes diluted. iOs, Windows and Blackberry each offer very controlled software and hardware experiences.

Ubuntu wants to offer the mobile market an alternative that is truly open. The Ubuntu Edge is a demonstration of the capabilities that such a model could provide.  As beautiful as the demonstration models and video show the phone to be I wonder if the edge demonstrates that Ubuntu phone is the right software for the future. Yes it demonstrates capabilities that others in the market do not have, but without third party support, it will simply be the fastest phone on the market without any useful software.

Mark Shuttleworth used the analogy of Formula 1 to describe how high end engineering is tested in race cars, to produce innovation in mainstream car production. The Ubuntu Edge therefore is the cutting edge which will push mainstream mobile phones? A wish list of components does not push the mainstream an inclusive software base which encourages contributors to profit from their involvement will.
Mozilla, in contrast, has launched the Firefox operating system with phone partners and is now able to offer an alternative to Android that is free and being tested not by a elite group who can afford the cost of entry but by the mainstream. Linux as I understand it has always been about being open to all not about a gated community who can afford Formula 1 quality hardware.