The Edge was not intended to go into mass production after the initial run, but rather to serve as a demonstration for new technologies for the industry.

The Edge fell short of its funding goal, raising only $12,733,521 with 27,633 backers to purchase the standard model of the handset.

[3] Reaction to Canonical's announcement was mixed; while it raised over a million dollars in the first five hours,[4] one commentator has noted the unclear market for the device, with a large number of smartphone operating systems already available, and no precedent showing demand for a "single device" combining the phone with the user's primary computer.

[8] This milestone put the Ubuntu Edge as the second highest funded crowdfunding project at the time, behind Star Citizen, a space trading and combat simulation video game which had raised $15 million that year.

[9] The campaign ended on 21 August with a final sum of $12,809,906, but was not able to meet its goal of $32 million to start the project.

It would have had Stereo speakers with HD audio and allowed use of a dual microphone recording system with active noise cancellation.