The Ubuntu Edge had $12.7 million in preorders, but Canonical thought that it needed $32 million, so it abandoned the project.
In contrast, Purism only thought that it needed $1.5 million in preorders to commit to the Librem 5. Developing hardware cost more 6 years ago than it costs today, but the problem seems that Ubuntu was talking to Western companies about their costs, and not going directly Shenzhen and talking to the suppliers, because it probably could have done it for much cheaper than $32 million.
I think another problem was that Canonical didn’t see the Ubuntu Edge as its central mission, and instead thought of developing the OS as its mission, so it gave up on the hardware. Canonical was never able to find very good hardware partners. Meizu and BQ weren’t really committed and didn’t invest much in marketing their Ubuntu Touch phones. They also didn’t market them correctly to the Linux enthusiast market. They didn’t capture the same excitement that existed for the Ubuntu Edge. It takes time and a long commitment to make a new mobile OS, and you have to offer a compelling reason for people to endure the privations of a new system.
I think Canonical could have made it work if it had been the company’s central mission, but it wasn’t. In the end, Shuttleworth decided that Canonical could make a profit in the cloud and Open Stack and changed the focus of the company.