Motorola’s attempts to integrate a web-top interface with their top-shelf smartphones have been pitiable at best, with prices for peripherals high and impressions of the interface lacking. It seems that what people want from a desktop/laptop experience is a high-productivity, familiar interface – something that Ubuntu is betting on with their new implementation on Android devices.
Ubuntu for Android promises a native desktop OS that can run concurrently with Android when a smartphone is docked. What advantages does this setup have? Much of the data in fundamental Android apps like Mail, Google Music, Calendar, and Contacts are shared between the two OSes; in other words, apps like the Chromium Web Browser and Ubuntu Photo Gallery will have immediate access to bookmarks and photos from Browser and Gallery. Beyond that, the user will be able to access and respond to phone calls, text messages, and voicemail via a program in Ubuntu.
Ubuntu’s parent company, Canonical, is prototyping this project on the Motorola Atrix 2 and plans to show it off more extensively at Mobile World Congress. They’ll also be making a big pitch to enterprise and IT, as a dual-core smartphone running Ubuntu for Android could potentially condense the need for two devices (smartphone and laptop/desktop workstation) into one device.
Source: Ubuntu