Rumors have started to pour in that Chinese manufacturer Meizu will announce partnership with Canonical for an Ubuntu phone at CES 2014. Several Chinese blogs have posted this news with supposedly leaked images of Ubuntu running on Meizu phone. Reddit and Twitter are also spreading the rumor.

Rumor holds some water

These rumors may have some worth. Last month, Canonical announced that it has its first smartphone partner but refrained from revealing the name. Speaking at LeWeb Conference in Paris, Canonical co-founder Mark Shuttleworth said:

“We have concluded our first set of agreements to ship Ubuntu on mobile phones, We’ve shifted gears from ‘making a concept’ to ‘it’s going to ship.’ That has a big impact on the team.”

Without revealing the name of the partner, Shuttleworth hinted that Ubuntu Touch might be coming on a high end phone in 2014.

Meizu to enter US on Ubuntu boat?

As per speculation, Meizu will use CES as a launch platform to enter the US market. Certainly, launching the first Ubuntu phone will give it significant publicity rather than launching an Android phone. Meizu has recently entered Italy and plans to enter more European market.

Is it Meizu MX3 ?

Meizu has already launched 8 core MX3 running Flyme (a modified Android OS). It may reveal Meizu MX3 running Ubuntu at CES. Specifications are surely mouth watering:

The hardware specifications of Meizu MX3:

5.1 inch Shart display with Full HD resolution

1.6 GHz Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 5410 CPU

2 GB of RAM, 16 GB internal storage

8 MPX rear camera with LED flash and 2 MPX front camera

Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and WiFi

Ubuntu vs Tizen vs Sailfish

Ubuntu is not the only one trying to cut in the smartphone OS market dominated by Android, iOS and Windows. Linux’s official smartphone OS Tizen is supposed to be launched in 2014 with Samsung. Finnish maker Jolla has already launched Sailfish OS based smartphone last month. It would be interesting to see some alternatives to the popular smartphones. Its for the better good, in my opinion. What you say?

[Update]

So it was actually a rumor. Meizu did nothing of this sort. Lets wait for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona :)