We spoke to the VP of mobile services Ubuntu, Cristian Parrino, to understand why it is different from Android, Firefox and Tizen.
The market for smartphones has been a competition between two almost from the beginning. But maybe Apple and Google have cornered the market for too long, and now many of the larger manufacturers are exploring alternatives to Android.
An alternative is Ubuntu, which this year spends his approach PCs phone. But what makes it so different from Tizen, Sailfish and the rest? I had the opportunity to speak with Cristian Parrino, vice president of mobile services Canonical, to discuss plans for Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a product of the British company Canonical. He is best known as an operating system for PCs, and is much admired by developers and enthusiasts, who see it as an alternative to Windows. This month, the first mobile device with Ubuntu, Ubuntu BQ Aquaris E4.5 Edition, was released.
What is dedicated Canonical since last year? “In the last 12 months we have been developing the operating system, honing their duties and undermining the user experience by testing thoroughly,” Parrino said.
Ubuntu is competition from Mozilla Firefox OS, used by several manufacturers such as Alcatel, Huawei and LG devices low cost focused mostly developing markets. It also faces Tizen, Samsung has endorsed.
But Parrino is not impressed. “Tizen is a clone of Android apps without. I can not understand why anyone would buy a Tizen phone, or frankly neither one of Samsung”.
It is equally scathing about the efforts of Mozilla. “Firefox is doing something different in the market segment in which they are focusing, but also have the option of ‘me too’ for users.” Referring to apps Firefox are created with HTML5, Parrino says, “They have a great reputation with developers for its Web technology, because they allow users to have that experience of ‘I can too.’”
“But they are focusing on a very low market users who have not been exposed to smartphones, with very cheap equipment. I think that economies of scale will work against him, because Android One is focusing on this segment and that will have better economies of scale with more influence. “
Canonical is not interested in the market share of affordable products. “We’re not focused on that segment. We do not go by the low-end market. This [the BQ Aquaris E4.5] is the cheapest product we will.”
In the World Congress Center Mobile Device Last year, Canonical presented its first mobile devices with Ubuntu, the Spanish manufacturer BQ and the Chinese manufacturer Meizu, with the new software on phones with Android operating previously. “For debuted with existing phones, we could literally show them with the code developers,” says Parrino. “It did not take a year to that worked with BQ, took a year to create the operating system.”
‘Scopes’ for all
The biggest change since we saw the first phones the last year is that Ubuntu is much more focused on the “ scopes “, an interesting alternative apps. The scopes are individual screens that collect information from your phone with what you find on the Internet. For example, instead of having separate apps for the video you took with your phone and the videos you have on YouTube, the scope video meets your videos with internet videos on one screen. As these scopes added, brands and services can create their own scopes with a single screen each.
“If you watch the show MWC last year, the scopes were almost windows into something more,” recalls Parrino. But now the scopes operate as independent apps that are easy to create. “
Give you life to developers, manufacturers and networks is an important part of the philosophy of Ubuntu. “Literally can use scopes to create unique experiences for the device,” says Parrino. “If you have a Chinese version or if you are creating something specifically for teens, services samples by means of the scopes aggregates can be very different.”
‘That will not be do with Android ‘
In such a saturated market where most manufacturers are using the same software (Android) is hard to stand. “When are making more money through bulk as they have a very small margin hardware,” said Perrino. The manufacturers and networks are funneling money to Google when users purchase apps, downloaded movies or other content. Ubuntu focuses on the colon, says Parrino: “It’s a way for manufacturers to go beyond the hardware, and also to own their services in Ubuntu are owners of services, ie the store. the transaction and user accounts. That can not do with Android. “
Ubuntu gives them control manufacturers and networks because it is not an ecosystem that try to sell products such as Android or Apple iOS . “No need to own the store, no need to own the accounts of users, and certainly do not need to own the content and services on the device. Unlike Google, Microsoft or Apple, we’re not trying to create an ecosystem. We make others to create their own ecosystems Alibaba or Yahoo or Facebook are incredible resources -. either messaging systems, video content, music, or whatever -. so I could use Ubuntu for its own ecosystem “
‘How do you manage to present to the public an unknown brand?’
Ubuntu was designed with manufacturers and networks in mind. But what about you or me, people who use phones? “If you have something special to users, the rest does not matter,” accepts Parrino. “How do you manage to present to the public an unknown brand? We are lucky that we are not an unknown brand, but we are known for a very specific way, especially for tech enthusiasts. How can we go further?
“We have not gone beyond the homepage. It is a large market, 30 million, but still a finite group. So the strategy is to focus on the first users to increase the value of the platform. “
” are allowing users to generate enthusiasm for the platform, which support the name and credibility and awareness of the platform, “says Parrino. Canonical and its partners seek to generate attention to the platform with “short sales” limited a day, offering a number of phone time to time.
Canonical deliberately proceeds with caution. “It will be a gradual process of the first users to a larger audience and more.”
Information of mouth is the main weapon of Canonical. “We have the resources of Microsoft to invest in advertising campaigns that can work or not. That has not worked at Microsoft and has certainly not worked for Samsung and Tizen,” says Parrino.
Networks where you can
For now, networks of England GiffGaff, Switzerland Three and Portugal Telecom are on board, but only selling SIM equipment for BQ Aquaris, rather than sell the phone as part of their products. “There is certainly no lack of interest,” says Parrino. “They’re saying, ‘OK, we’re ready, let’s do it,’ and we answered them not for their user base, not yet. We have to be very careful with how I urge you, and they appreciate it. They’re not used to, but appreciate it.
“When we get to a point where we believe we have generated enough attention, then tell them to vendors that offered for sale”.
And long will it take? “I estimate about nine months … Before the year is out we will see the first vendors, but it is something you really have to care. If I think we’re ready before, will make it sooner. “
Parrino note rivals should have taken longer.” Look at Firefox and Telefónica: household name, major advertising campaigns, direct to shelves sales, [followed by] astronomical rates of return. They did not invest in users who are speakers of products and promote them. It went straight to traders and that hurt them. “
‘Come on track’
The first phones Ubuntu are devices that are sold with the Android platform. Will there devices specially created with Ubuntu platform in mind? “That is what we want,” says Parrino. “We are not working on a single device for Ubuntu, but are in the process of reaching that with each of the manufacturers original equipment with which we are speaking.
“I do not think that happens in the next 6-9 months, but hopefully the second BQ device has unique Ubuntu functions. We are in conversation with many others, have been somewhat aggressive since he tried to the world that this was not ‘vapourware’ [products advertised with fanfare but never out]. “
The Incredible Edge
Canonical He made headlines in 2013 thanks to Ubuntu Edge, a concept of high-end on-site ‘crowdfunding’ Indiegogo. The ambitious goal was to raise the amount of £ 21.5m (US $ 32 million). Although not reached its highest goal, the Edge attracted a record number of enthusiasts phones. “The Edge failed” admits Parrino. “It was an experiment without commercial implications. Even if he had succeeded we would not have taken one second Ubuntu Edge”.
Parrino says the affair with Edge was created to attract attention. “When we met with manufacturers see all these great ideas of hardware, such as sapphire glass, but lack two years. So we said, why not bring innovation into the hands of a small but important market sector, and thus anticipate ? innovations through crowdfunding “
” The biggest thing we learned is what we wanted to check: people want innovation, something different Enthusiasm for innovative products was. the most important thing we learned, not only for us but also for those watching. They opened the eyes of many manufacturers. Had Verizon executives in the US saying, ‘we are following this Ubuntu Edge, no we believe that so many people are contributing! ‘”
What if Edge had reached its goal? “We would have had to implement it …” says Parrino, with a touch of relief that did not happen. “What we had to do, we were ready. But this crazy device had been a conceptual device, there would have been something you could sell in the high range anyway.”
What does the future
Having started life on your computer and spread to your phone, Ubuntu has larger implications. With the announcement of Ubuntu Core, the software now have until drones and other devices. “The code you put on this phone already has many converging elements,” says Parrino. “We have an operating system that works on phones, it works on tablets, is the same on PCs and eventually be the same on television. We show the interface for users a few years ago. It is the same that runs on the servers, the same the cloud, and the same as announced for the Internet of Things. It is a platform that developers can use to recreate the code of your apps, services, and scopes on all platforms “.
This means you could potentially connect your phone to any other device and continue working. “And then there is the convergence of hardware, so this device can be powerful enough to run a desktop computer while connected. That is the goal of this day. This is the first step of this journey.”
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