Several Android phone makers will release Ubuntu phones this year, Canonical’s CEO has revealed.

Jane Silber, speaking to The Register’s Gavin Clarke, says the company talks with its Android OEM partners regularly and that “many [Android OEMs] will be shipping Ubuntu phones.”

“There’s a lot of interest from these folks in supporting another platform, she adds.

Canonical unveiled the latest Ubuntu device, the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet, last week. The company is likely to unveil further devices at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona later this month.

‘Many Android OEM will ship Ubuntu Phones this year, says Canonical’s CEO’

Clarke says Canonical has “received commitments from Android smart phone and tablet makers to ship devices using its Linux with devices later this year.”

Silber wasn’t willing to divulge the full details of which Google OEM partners it is in talks with, nor those that are ‘committed’ to shipping Ubuntu devices this year.

But as we exclusively revealed last week, several well-known Android OEMs, including Sony and OnePlus, are ‘supportive’ of community ports for their devices.

Chinese OEM Meizu is also reported to working on a follow-up to the MX4 Ubuntu Edition which went on sale in China and mainland Europe in the spring of last year.

World’s Largest Carrier Also Backs Ubuntu Phone

It isn’t just unnamed Android OEMs that Canonical is in discussions with.

We can reveal that the company is working very closely with Chinese state-owned mobile network China Mobile.

The world’s biggest mobile phone operator (with over 800 million subscribers) is busy developing app and Scopes integration for some of China’s biggest social media and messaging services, including WeChat and Sina Weibo.

To help its effort it even has its own internal development device (a commercial release of which is not planned). The device is a Snapdragon 615 powered N1 Max running Ubuntu.