Ubuntu Edge: Crowdfunding a Super-Smartphone

Alexey Miller, the chief executive officer of Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom, seemed to be having a megalomaniacal moment. On July 16 he took to the company’s website and demanded a tablet computer that could mimic all of the functions of a PC. While Miller elicited some ribbing on Twitter because he offered to pay $3.7 million for such a device, that’s nothing compared with Mark Shuttleworth’s pitch.

Shuttleworth, a South African software billionaire looking to break into the mobile operating system market, is pursuing a $32 million effort to develop a smartphone that can replace a desktop computer. Unlike Miller, he’s not paying for the project himself; instead, he’s asking other people to contribute on crowdfunding website Indiegogo. Shuttleworth says he wants to push developers to test the limits of processing power, storage, and screen technology. “It’s sort of like a concept car,” he says. “But instead of waiting three years to see if something like it gets built, we’re going to try and build it now.”