Canonical's super-smartphone raises $11m

Ubuntu Edge breaks crowdfunding record

The Ubuntu Edge smartphone campaign has raised over $11 million on crowdfunding portal Indiegogo, making it the most-funded campaign in crowdfunding history.

This isn’t the first record shattered by the linux-powered smartphone, which gathered over $3 million in funding in its first day.

The previous record holder on a conventional crowdfunding platform, the Pebble smart watch, raised $10.2 million on Indiegogo rival. Kickstarter.

The Ubuntu Edge isn’t just any smartphone, boasting 4GBs of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, dual-boot Android and Ubuntu linux OS, and the ability to be plugged into a monitor and used as a desktop PC.

The smartphone isn’t terribly expensive considering, with the current price tag set at $695 for a single unit, $7,000 for a set of ten, or $80,000 for 115 phones.

Despite the big figures associated with the campaign, Canonical has set a goal of $32 million for the project and has opted for hard rather than flexible funding (meaning the project won’t get a dime unless it meets its goal) and it is highly unlikely the company will be able to raise the remaining $21 million before time runs out.

There are 70 hours remaining in the campaign at time of writing.

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