BQ Aquaris E4.5, First Commercially Available Ubuntu Phone, Lands In Europe For 170 Euro
Lucian Armasu / Tom's Hardware Guide :
Context & Ripple Effects
Canonical's Ubuntu mobile OS has moved from demo to shelf: after a flash-sale preview on the same repurposed BQ Android handset in February, the Aquaris E4.5 is now the first commercially available Ubuntu phone, at €170 in Europe. TechCrunch's hands-ons of the BQ and Meizu builds framed this as Canonical's two-hardware-partner beachhead.
The €170 price point is deliberate — a mid-range Android device re-flashed with Ubuntu rather than a flagship challenger, which keeps the bet cheap for BQ and lets Canonical test real-world demand before scaling.
First-order effects
- European buyers get a third smartphone OS option at mainstream pricing, while BQ gains differentiation over commodity Android rivals for essentially one device design.
- Canonical gets its first commercial distribution channel and its first read on whether Ubuntu's converged phone-desktop pitch survives contact with consumers.
Second-order effects
- By August the experiment had scaled to global ordering of BQ's Ubuntu phones — but without US 4G support, capping the addressable market and signaling that carrier certification, not software readiness, is the bottleneck.
- Meizu, the second hardware partner from the hands-on coverage, faces pressure to match BQ's retail availability or cede first-mover positioning within the tiny Ubuntu ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- Canonical extended the same playbook to tablets with the BQ Aquaris M10 running Ubuntu 15.04, suggesting a strategy of convergent single-OS devices across form factors built on low-cost partner hardware.
- If the pattern holds, third mobile platforms survive not by beating iOS or Android on devices but by riding regional OEMs into markets where carrier lock-in is weakest — with US radio-band support as the standing gate.
The trend: Alternative mobile OSes are reaching market through budget regional OEM partners like BQ and Meizu, testing convergence-first software stacks ahead of any flagship push.