$32 Million In 31 Days? On paper it seems an almost impossible goal: raise $32 million in a month through a crowdfunding campaign in order to roll out a new high-end cellular phone. But that’s exactly what UK-based technology company, Canonical, is looking to do. The company created Ubuntu (pronounced Oo-Boon-Too), a Linux-based operating system that integrates PC, tablet, mobile and television formats. Its newest smartphone project – which is called The Ubuntu Edge – will be its first piece of phone hardware, if it’s funded. The phone will boast a 4.5-inch sapphire crystal screen, 720p screen with a multi-core processor, 4GB of RAM, dual LTE antennas and 128GB of storage. The Edge will run Ubuntu’s OS as well as Android, according to its campaign pitch. Price? You can buy one through the crowdfunding campaign for $830. But can the company reach its $32 million mark? As of July 23, the campaign had raised almost $3.5 million on Indiegogo. The best reason to believe that the company can is Canonical’s 39-year-old CEO and founder, Mark Shuttleworth. The successful, South African serial entrepreneur was not named one of FORBES’ “12 Most Disruptive Names In Business” this year for nothing. In a move akin to charging a heard of oncoming bulls, Shuttleworth has puts his company head to head with deeply entrenched competitors by crafting a third operating system that plays in multiple device categories. In the mobile space, Ubuntu is up against Apple AAPL -0.69%’s OS and Google GOOG -0.76%’s Android, among others. In the PC realm – where Shuttleworth estimates some 20 million use Ubuntu– Microsoft MSFT -0.34% is king. The company also has ambitions in the TV space. Shuttleworth’s obviously not one to do things the easy way (his idea of vacation spots have included Antarctica and the International Space Station). When I asked him this past march what motivated him to adopt such a profoundly disruptive strategy, Shuttleworth said that those are the types of moves that affect change. The fact that failure is a very real possibility is par for course. “If I had to pick a project where I had a certainty of success, it just wouldn’t be interesting,” he’d said. Shuttleworth will not likely let this smartphone project go unfunded. He’s financially carried Ubuntu’s development through his own HBD Venture Capital Group and the 1999 payout he received after selling his first company – the public key certification company, Thawte – to VeriSign VRSN -0.13% for $575 million. Eschewing external investment so far has allowed him to retain complete control while avoiding the worry of losing someone else’s money if the company should falter. “Some people love the idea of taking other people’s money…” he told FORBES in March. “For me, that’s a responsibility that I don’t need.” Well, in this case he will make an exception, and why not? Investors through Indiegogo won’t have equity or a say in company policy, plus it’s quite possible that whatever shortfall the crowdfunding campaign experiences will be financed by Shuttleworth himself. youtube/watch?v=eQLe3iIMN7k
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:43:37 +0000
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