Ubuntu phones to hit the market in October

Smartphones running Canonical's Linux-based computer operating system Ubuntu will be available to customers beginning in October, earlier than the company had previously expected. Previously, the smartphones were expected to be released commercially in 2014. Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told the Wall Street Journal that developers will have access to the OS in late February. Interestingly, he said that the smartphones will be available in "two large geographic markets" in October, and while he didn't commit to North America as an early market, he said North America is "absolutely a key market for Ubuntu." Shuttleworth also said carriers have shown interest in the platform but he did not mention which ones. The Ubuntu user interface is something of a hybrid between BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) 10 and the webOS platform from Palm. Ubuntu for phones allows users to navigate through the platform by swiping from one side of their screen to another: swiping from the left brings up a list of favorite apps, swiping from the right navigates to the most recently used app and swiping from the bottom brings up each app's menu. Article (sub. req.)