As of this post, the Ubuntu Edge (a smartphone and PC combined into a single device) has been the most funded project ever on Indiegogo, but it did not meet its funding goal of $32 million. According to the Indiegogo website, the Ubuntu Edge raised $12.8 million and the campaign was closed on August 22, 2013. This crowdfunding project had nearly 28 thousand backers, but failed to meet its crowdfunding goal by more than $19 million.
At the time, the Ubuntu Edge was supposed to compete with the smartphones from Apple and Samsung and was comparably priced at $695 per device. There were 7 reward levels for the Ubuntu Edge, ranging from $20 to be listed on the Founders page all the way up to $80 thousand to get 115 smartphones in a bundle. One interesting reward was for $30 to get International shipping outside of the United States and United Kingdom.
There are a couple of important lessons from the Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaign. Firstly, even though it was a failure because it raised less 50 percent of its goal, in some ways it can be considered a success due to the widespread attention it got from the media. Also the creators ensured that they asked for enough funding to actually deliver a product to its bakers. If they had asked for only $10 million and met the funding goal, it’s unlikely that they would have been able to deliver the device promised. That would have been a real failure because 28 thousand people would have ended up with little or nothing.
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