Folks of Canonical are looking forward to launch the first Ubuntu-powered smartphone in October this year. In the meantime, they’ll open up the platform for developers, allowing them to start readying their apps for the launch.
Companies and individuals looks to get into the game as early as possible will even be able to test their apps on Google’s (and Samsung’s) Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
And while that’s all cool and we dig Ubuntu’s entrance in the mobile market, we remain a bit skeptical whether it has what it takes to compete in today’s market, dominated by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Plus, let’s not forget Microsoft’s Windows Phone and the newly launched BlackBerry 10 platforms.
Open-source fans will appreciate Ubuntu as platform that runs their smartphones (and possibly their computers), but does this group of people represent a big enough market for successful mobile product(s) is a whole different matter. In any case, we’ll keep following all the news coming from Canonical and let you know as soon as we hear something worth sharing. Stay tuned…