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"Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth revealed today that a \u201Cvery large supplier of silicon to the mobile industry\u201D has committed to Ubuntu on mobile and agreed to optimize the Linux-based operating system for their products.\r\n\r\nIt follows the reveal of the company\u2019s new tablet-ready Ubuntu interface, which is optimized for touch and uses the device\u2019s screen edges to switch apps and take advantage of system-level functionality.\r\n\r\nThe backing of a mystery silicon supplier, which Canonical says will be revealed after Mobile World Congress later this month, has \u201Ccatalyzed\u201D the manufacturing sector and caused a number of OEMs and ODMs to confirm they will support Ubuntu smartphones and tablets, according to Shuttleworth.\r\nWhen will we be able to use it?\r\n\u201CWe are now very confident that Ubuntu will ship on devices in Q1 2014 and we are in discussions at the highest levels with top-tier carriers in North America, Europe and China to get launch partners for those devices,\u201D Shuttleworth added in a briefing call earlier today.\r\n\r\nCanonical has published a table on its website for partners, detailing the hardware requirements for an entry-level consumer tablet and a high-end enterprise tablet.\u00A0Shuttleworth revealed that the company\u2019s current plan is to work with one preferred partner on both a low and high-end device, before having them built by \u201Cone or two\u201D manufacturing partners under either their own brand or a carrier brand.\r\n\r\nFor the release of these dedicated tablets, he also said that they would launch with two carriers in two separate markets - possibly hinting at the North America, China and European markets mentioned earlier for mobile devices generally.\r\n\r\nThere has been some confusion regarding the release timetable of the mobile interface for smartphones and tablets. Shuttleworh clarified that Ubuntu 13.10, which includes the full entry-level smartphone experience, will go live in October.\r\n\r\n\u201CYou will be able to take Ubuntu 13.10 and stick it on your Nexus 4, or 5 or 6, or whatever they're up to by then, and you\u2019ll get the Ubuntu entry-level smartphone experience on that device,\u201D he said.\r\n\r\nNew smartphones shipping with Ubuntu will come much later though. The delay is due to carrier regulatory testing, and should mean that the new devices go to market in Q1 2014 (he actually said April at one point).\r\n\r\nVersion 14.04, which doesn\u2019t have a release date yet, will ship with both the integrated tablet and smartphone experience. As with many Windows 8 machines, some of Ubuntu\u2019s partners such as Dell, Lenovo and HP will be shipping desktop PCs and laptops with a touch screen and detachable keyboard.\r\n\r\nThe tablet experience could therefore arrive much sooner than Q1 2014 on a PC or some kind of convertible latpop-tablet hybrid - but for a dedicated tablet, consumers will have to wait.\r\nWill it be consistent across devices?\r\nShuttleworth also said that Canonical is already having conversations with carriers and handset manufacturers. He emphasized that neither side has said they want to \u201Crecreate the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem\u201D with the Ubuntu interface.\r\n\r\nThat means that unlike on Android - where the stock version is featured on Google's Nexus devices, but tweaked elsewhere by hardware manufacturers and carriers \u00A0- Ubuntu will be left well alone. It should come as a relief to anyone that has experienced the incredible amount of bloatware and inadequate skins shipped with some Android smartphones in the past.\r\n\r\n\u201CWhat [carriers] do want is to be able to tap into services that are relevant for them. So for example, some carriers have content - they commission music and movies - so they want to make that available to the user,\u201D Shuttleworth said.\r\n\r\n\u201CIn our user experience, what we\u2019ve specifically allowed for is multi-layered stores. So what that means is, a user who got a phone from a carrier can expect that the carrier will choose what content is featured - but if they search for content they will find content from wherever it\u2019s best delivered to them.\u201D\r\nWhen can I try it out?\r\nCanoncial is releasing a preview of the tablet interface for Google\u2019s Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets this Thursday. A full roll out of the ecosystem is still a long way off, but it\u2019s clear that the company is taking a very different approach to some of its well-established competitors.\r\n\r\nFor the smartphone market in particular, it just might be enough to compete with Microsoft for the third spot.\r\n\r\nImage Credit: Canonical"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/19/canonical-founder-mark-shuttleworth-claims-a-very-large-silicon-supplier-is-already-backing-ubuntu-on-mobile/>