Smartphones on Ubuntu - coming in October

The first mobile devices running Canonical's OS will be on sale as early as October this year, rather than in 2014 as previously reported. The platform itself will be available to developers at the end of February. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, which cited Canonical's founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth, the news was announced.

It is still unknown who will manufacture the Ubuntu smartphones. It is quite possible that several Chinese companies will take on this role. Before the official devices appear on the "two largest global markets" (one of which will certainly be the USA, and the other likely China), developers will be able to test the OS on the Galaxy Nexus, which it is currently optimized for. 

The main feature of Ubuntu, as a reminder, is the unique OS design, which is entirely swipe-based. How applications will operate on it is not entirely clear. Canonical itself claims that they will be easy to port from Android.