Hello Linux Geeksters. Earlier this year, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) in Barcelona, Canonical has announced the first two phone manufacturers that will create Ubuntu Touch-based smartphones: Meizu and Bq.
The release dates of the two Ubuntu Touch based phones is still unknown, but Mark Shuttleworth hopes that the first Ubuntu phones will be available this year.
According to this announcement from the Meizu website, the Chinese manufacturer will present Meizu MX3 powered by Ubuntu Touch at the Mobile Asia Expo 2014, which is scheduled for the 11th of June, in Shanghai, the phone being available at Ubuntu’s booth in Hall 2, N2.A10 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.
Hardware specs of Meizu MX3:
Meizu MX3 has a 5.1 display with 1800 x 1080 resolution, a Samsung Exynos 5410 Octa-Core CPU (1.6 GHz A15 × 4 + 1.2 GHz A7 × 4,28nm, LP HKMG), PowerVR SGX 544MP3 (3-core 533 MHz) GPU, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, 8 megapixel camera will most likely run Ubuntu Touch flawless.
Canonical has been working a lot at Ubuntu Touch, the mobile version of Ubuntu. While the initial plan was to make it available for all the Google Nexus smartphones and tablets, the developers have dropped the support for Galaxy Nexus, Google Nexus 7 2012 and Google Nexus 10, Ubuntu Touch, now based on Ubuntu 14.10, being officially available only for the Google Nexus 4 smartphone and the Google Nexus 7 2013 tablet. (Nexus 5 is not yet supported by Ubuntu Touch)
Due to the fact that Ubuntu Touch is not yet stable enough to be used on mobile devices, the Canonical developers are planning to release a RTM (release-to-manufacturer) branch, where they will be focused on bug-fixes and stability improvements, and not the implementation of new features.
Until now, there aren’t a lot of applications for Ubuntu Touch available, Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth hopes that by the time the first Ubuntu Touch powered phones hit the market, the top 50 Android/iOS apps will be available for Ubuntu Touch.
Also worth mentioning, Mark’s Shuttleworth big dream is to reach full desktop-mobile convergence somewhere between the releases of Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 15.04 (between October 2014 and April 2015).