I'm arguing here that Canonical made a mistake by shunning the Edge as a 
phone-only device to begin the Ubuntu-Touch experience with.

Further, I think it is unwise on Canonical's part to "Abandon" the 
Edge as a Phone if the Indiegogo campaign for Edge-as-Convergence-Device is 
unsuccessful. Canonical doesn't even have the software for 
convergence yet. But they will soon have stable software for the phone.

I contributed to the campaign, but frankly if given the choice between:
1) Edge-Smartphone (that is thinner & lighter than the Convergence model)
2) Edge-Convergence device presently campaigning
I would have "bought" the Edge-Smartphone. Today, I'd rather have a thin/light 
"mini-Ubuntu" in my pocket than something thicker/heavier that can run an 
entire desktop.

Say the Edge-Convergence campaign is unsuccessful. Canonical should immediately 
do another Indiegogo for an Edge-Phone. 

Ubuntu Edge Smartphone: 
thinner, lighter device than Edge-Convergence device,
16GB storage, 
Corning Gorilla Glass, 
dual-core CPU, 
2GB RAM, 
stereo speakers,
standard battery tech
aluminum frame

Keep the price down (compared to the convergence model), get it in people's 
hands. Ubuntu and the Edge device will get more widespread exposure this way. 
Edge-Convergence is an esoteric "specialty" device that only financially 
well-to-do people can afford, which is not what Ubuntu and FLOSS software is 
supposed to be about! Open-Source advocates generally don't have a lot of 
money. Not only do I think it was unfair to run a "do-or-die" campaign for a 
"specialty" device, I think it unintentionally shunned many Ubuntu supporters 
and community members who desperately want an Ubuntu-Edge phone but not 
necessarily a more expensive convergence device. A good starting point for 
Canonical would have been to give us an Edge phone that can easily interface 
with the Ubuntu Desktop. Just to have a Phone that can plug-and-play with your 
Desktop is something to cheer about. To make matters worse, the excellent 
physical design of the Ubuntu-Edge is apparently going to be trashed if the 
campaign is unsuccessful. This is not right!

Canonical threw all the chips on the table for convergence, why? To win, you 
need to stay in the game and slowly accumulate wins, not bet it all on one 
hand. Offering a Phone first could have also served to "prove" the 
software/tech for the eventual convergence goal.

This email was written as constructive criticism in the hope that it helps 
Canonical succeed in getting Ubuntu Edge out to the public in some form. My 
preference today is for a thin/light Ubuntu-Edge-Phone.




From: estela...@hotmail.com
To: ubuntu-phone@lists.launchpad.net
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2013 17:20:30 +0000
Subject: Re: [Ubuntu-phone] Ubuntu Edge (the Ubuntu handset)




Ubuntu Edge will miss $32m crowdfunding target if it keeps this pace, say 
researchers.
"Compared to the average Kickstarter, we can see that the Ubuntu Edge rose more 
sharply in the beginning and flatlined harder when entering the 'Dead Zone'," 
Waddell and Ligtenberg write. 
"This is further evidence that would-be backers are *turned-off* by Canonical's 
incremental pricing structure. As the price of securing a phone has ticked from 
$600 to the present value of $775, backing has slowed to a snail's pace."
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/02/ubuntu-edge-crowdfunding-prediction-miss

hmmm, this doesn't look good guys.
As you can see they need to find a way to offer perks back in the high demand 
6xx to 725 price ranges.
What are a few ways they can offer a different perk in that price range ?
Well lets look at Samsung and HTC, they're both offering a similar device but 
with less bells and whistles.
i.e. A good Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Galaxy S4 Mini 
comparison.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf9iU26AdV8
We gotta think smart like google did when they offered the nexus7 and it became 
so popular that Apple was forced to release the Ipad mini.
Well there are a few things that are nice to have, but may be getting in the 
way of offering something in the high demand price range:
So from the S4 mini example a phone perk in the 6xx to 725 could look like this:

-A not so powerful processor-A bit less ram-1 antenna-64gb hdd + some free 
online storage-Converged ubuntu (android optional; add like $25 more if you 
need this) ?

So not doing something fast would be leaving this "low hanging niche" 
unexploited. We need to leave those mental barriers behind when you want to 
break all records and have your campaign quoted for years to come. We should 
had been near 11M by now. The alternative would be to say goodbye to this 
project as of today, sadly...

                                          

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