Ubuntu Touch OS finds a phone partner, coming to high-end handsets next year

Remember the Ubuntu Edge, the Canonical creation that set out to earn $32 million on Indiegogo but fell very short? Well, the company is back at it again, though this time it’s maneuvering a slightly different route to deliver the Ubuntu mobile platform to the public at large.

Ubuntu Touch has its first customer, CNET has learned. Canonical has just signed its first deal to supply a smartphone with its mobile operating system, Canonical founder and product strategy leader Mark Shuttleworth revealed in an interview here at the LeWeb conference. He wouldn’t say which company has agreed to use the Linux-based OS, but said it will be offered on high-end phones in 2014.