Canonical’s Ubuntu Edge project, on Indiegogo, has already beaten funding records set by previous crowd-funding projects, but it might not be the most successful crowd-funded project in history. That’s because, even though $11.3-million has been funded, the project is still $20.7-million short of reaching its goal.
Averaged out, the project would need just shy of 30 000 people to commit to buying a phone that doesn’t exist yet.
Right now it’s not looking great at all. Unless a mysterious benefactor hops in and saves the day – perhaps Microsoft, because misery Windows Phone loves company, or wunderkind Elon Musk – the open source smartphone to end them all won’t happen, this year.