Sure to spark some interest at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being held next week in Las Vegas, a new smartphone OS has been announced. Ubuntu is no newcomer to the OS space, having released the first desktop version of Ubuntu, which is based on Linux, in 2004 which now has more than 20,000,000 users and adding more every month.
So, does Ubuntu for Phones make a compelling reason to start playing with the development tools? Yes and no. The biggest reason for me, at least is the development flexibility Ubuntu for Phones offers. Developers have a choice to develop apps in HTML5, JavaScript, QML, C++, C, and OpenGL. What this hopefully means is the ability to take existing HTML5 apps built for other platforms and easily porting them for Ubuntu with hooks for native tools like the camera and GPS, while allowing developers to use higher-performing languages like OpenGL for game development.
The OS itself looks to have some interesting UX design patterns that i’m looking forward to testing on an actual device (not in a simulator). Speaking of that, there are no Ubuntu phones available currently and Canonical says it may be late this year or even next year before we see a dedicated Ubuntu Phone. As far as the UX goes, it appears that Ubuntu has taken good notes from other mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and Windows 8 and put them together to deliver an OS with some of the best features of each. While there are some interesting features, none of them stand out as revolutionary. Most we’ve seen in some form in another OS, but seem to have been improved on, like the pull-down menus and frequently used apps.
What Ubuntu does has working in its favor is the app ecosystem. Ubuntu Software Centre has been the go-to place for all things Ubuntu desktop. Adding in a mobile apps category makes perfect sense to distribute mobile apps.
It’s difficult not to be at least somewhat concerned by the failure of the NexPhone, which missed reaching funding last year…by a long shot.
What is confusing is that Ubuntu for Android also just has launched, but is a separate and different offer.
Is Ubuntu too late to the mobile space? Time will tell.This isn’t the only mobile OS to be announced recently and you’re likely to hear more about those and Ubuntu for Phones here on Spark. This also won’t be the last mobile OS to be launched as companies jockey for marketspace as mobile usage continues on its upward trend, which shows no sign of slowing down.
