New Entrant: Ubuntu Mobile OS at CES 2013

By: Umair Yousuf  |   January 9th, 2013   |   Gadgets, Smartphones

Tired of seeing iOS, Android, Windows 8 or Blackberry OS on all smartphones? Don’t fret as a new player is gearing up to enter the market.

 

Canonical finally unveiled its long awaited Ubuntu Mobile OS at the ongoing CES 2013 exhibition in Las Vegas giving visitors a hands on demo of an early version of the mobile operating system. Based on Linux, the new operating system still has a long way to go with a developer version still some months away from release but even the early version shows huge potential.

 

Tech Crunch’s Darrell Etherington has given a glowing account of the new mobile operating system after trying it out during CES and believes that Ubuntu will go on to become a strong contender once it is fully developed.

 

The announcement that Canonical was set to launch a Linux based mobile operating system was huge news in mobile technology and now that reviewers have finally tested an early version of the OS out it seems the hype was not without cause.

 

Familiarities with the desktop version of Ubuntu were apparent right from the off with the standard dock almost completely intact.

 

According to Etherington the operating system was shoehorned on a Galaxy Nexus phone. The main thing noticed about the operating system was a complete lack of buttons as the OS has been built to be completely gesture controlled similar to webOS while some of the features were also comparable to Blackberry’s upcoming BB10 mobile operating system.

 

Being a relatively early iteration some problems were bound to occur.

 

Etherington said that on trial the “apps were sometimes slow to open, for instance, and in general there’s sluggishness to the UX.”   However he ended his short preview on the note that “when this ships in an early developer beta form for users who want to test it on the bleeding edge, I’ll definitely be among those to try it out.”

 

The developer community has been eagerly waiting for a Linux based mobile OS and their patience has now paid off with a developer version of Ubuntu mobile expected in the coming months.

 

Source: Tech Crunch