Ubuntu Touch OS Scores Smartphone Partner, Reveals Shuttleworth

The days of Canonical's mobile operating system, dubbed Ubuntu Touch, are rapidly upon us. In October, an image of Ubuntu Touch was released along with the 13.10 version of the desktop OS. Fast-forward a couple more months, and Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth has revealed the company has penned an agreement with its first — and yet unspecified — smartphone partner.

The announcement was made by Shuttleworth today at the LeWeb conference, where he revealed that Canonical has signed on an agreement with a partner that will offer its Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system, though he wouldn't say what partner that is. Those who have been eager to get their hands on the long-developed OS will be glad to know the offerings will fall into the high-end range.

What kind of specifications these phones will have and how much they will cost was not detailed at the time. He did go on to state that Canonical is "at the board level on four household brands. They sell a lot of phones all over the world, in emerging and fully emerged markets, to businesses and consumers." That is quite the tease, but again we're going to have to wait for more details, since Shuttleworth wouldn't say which brands these are.

Such marks a very big milestone for the open mobile OS, which is the culmination of quite a bit of work over many months and something that will, in all likelihood, find the industry a cold and crowded playing field. Shuttleworth is confident that his company's mobile offering will hold its own, however, saying that he wants Ubuntu to be relegated to a niche favored by a small pocket of faithfuls.

SOURCE: CNET