Maiden Ubuntu Smartphone Adventure Will Not Be Reliant On Apps

It looks like the very first Ubuntu smarphone will not such a strong reliance on apps in order to be a success – which definitely goes against the grain at this point in time where the smartphone market is concerned. After all, an app ecosystem does seem to be the only way for hardware to gain market share, as you can see by how Windows Phone and BlackBerry struggle in this manner (the latter more so than the former) as opposed to iOS and Android platforms. Canonical, the folks behind the Ubuntu smartphone, claims that it will arrive with a new user experience paradigm known as Scopes, rather than feature apps.

This smartphone will be launched officially next week in Europe first, where it will be known as the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition. What is Scopes all about? It happens to be contextual home-screen dashboards which will be a whole lot easier and less time-consuming to develop as opposed to actual, native apps. For instance, the music Scope will pull songs from Grooveshark as well as locally stashed music, and there can also be a “nearby” Scope that would deliver suggestions from Yelp, reviews from Time Out, and your local weather, all of those on the same display.

Cristian Parrino, VP of Mobile at Canonical, shared, “We’re producing an experience where content and services come directly to the screen in an unfragmented way. It makes for a much richer and faster user experience.”

Hardware specifications for the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition would be a 4.5” display, a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal memory, a 5MP shooter in front, and an 8MP camera at the back, with a possibly sub-200 Euro price tag.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Smartphones, ubuntu