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Ubuntu Edge smartphone misses its crowdfunding goal by over $19 million

Ubuntu Edge smartphone misses its crowdfunding goal by over $19 million

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Ubuntu Edge
Ubuntu Edge

When Canonical launched its crowdfunding campaign for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone last month it set an ambitious goal: raising $32 million through Indiegogo. As it turns out, that goal was a little too ambitious, as the campaign has wrapped up nearly $20 million short. After 30 days, Canonical was able to raise just over $12.8 million from more than 27,000 backers.

While the campaign rocketed to nearly $3.4 million within the first 24 hours, the influx of donations quickly slowed at that point. It led Ubuntu to reset the pricing scheme several times. Under the original structure, the first 5,000 backers would receive a phone for $600, while everyone thereafter would need to pay $830. Limited tiers of $625, $675, and $725 were eventually added to the mix, and in the end a $695 tier was put into place for the remaining duration of the campaign. Even with the new tiers, the campaign stood at only $8.3 million as of August 7th. It is important to remember that in the context of crowdfunded campaigns the Ubuntu Edge actually has been quite successful — breaking $12 million is a considerable achievement — but that's little consolation when the project doesn't get funded in the first place.