Never has a company attempted to raise more than twenty million dollars through crowdfunding, yet Canonical set the funding goal for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone at 32 million dollars. With 20 days left until the campaign closes, it has only reached one quarter of its target — 7.91 million dollars. Canonical's funding initiative is very likely to fail unless founder Mark Shuttleworth contributes a portion from his billion-dollar fortune.
Historical data from the Kickstarter platform shows that crowdfunding usually follows a predictable pattern: it starts strong, tapers off, and then ends with a brief surge. Following this pattern, the Ubuntu Edge may eventually reach around 18 million dollars. Even if it fails, this figure is already astonishing. The previous highest-funded project in history was "Star Citizen," but the reason it set a record was because the developers continuously accepted donations on their website.