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Canonical's Ubuntu Touch for phones and tablets is officially dead

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By Cosmin Vasile

Updated: Apr 05, 2017, 10:01 PM

Work on Ubuntu Touch started enthusiastically back in 2011 when Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth presented his vision on convergence. Ubuntu's primary goal would have been to support smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and other smart screens, including smartwatches and head units.

Unfortunately, Shuttleworth's dream seems so far away now, as Canonical's CEO announced that his company is giving up on Ubuntu Touch to try and focus resources elsewhere.

Unity8, the platform that should have united all smart devices under the Ubuntu banner, is now a thing of the past as Canonical announced it will end development as of right now. Since Unity 8 was an integral part of Ubuntu Touch, it's pretty clear that Canonical has no plans for smartphones and tablets.

Apparently, Canonical had an excellent year and now wants to continue to grow. In order for that to happen, the company had to let go of some projects that consume too many resources on the long run.

The choice, ultimately, is to invest in the areas which are contributing to the growth of the company. Those are Ubuntu itself, for desktops, servers and VMs, our cloud infrastructure products (OpenStack and Kubernetes) our cloud operations capabilities (MAAS, LXD, Juju, BootStack), and our IoT story in snaps and Ubuntu Core.

Although the Ubuntu Touch project has been shelved for the moment, Canonical's dream of convergence lives on, just that it won't include smartphones and tablets.

source: Canonical

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Cosmin, a tech journalist with a career spanning over a decade, brought a wealth of experience to PhoneArena. His expertise lies in brands like Samsung and Nokia, and he has a keen interest in innovative technologies. After a brief stint in PR, Cosmin returned to tech journalism in 2016, committed to delivering clear and objective news. When he's not writing or appearing as a guest on TV and radio shows, Cosmin enjoys playing RPGs, watching Netflix, and nurturing his passion for history and travel.