The most popular mobile operating system is currently Android followed by iOS of course, and there is Windows Phone and Samsung Bada along with a few others as well. But it appears the mobile space simply doesn’t have enough operating systems out there and requires at least one other option, and that option is to be Ubuntu for smartphones.

The word is Canonical has now unveiled a mobile version of the Linux based Ubuntu OS called Ubuntu for phones and uses the same basic drivers and kernel as the Android platform but will feature a new user interface and navigation.

Apparently Ubuntu phones will have heavy use of gestures with each corner of the display performing a gesture whilst a short quick swipe from the left shows favourite applications, and a long swipe reveals all your apps. A swipe from the bottom delivers menu controls, a swipe down reveals messages and notifications while a right swipe take the user to their last app that was used.

Although Ubuntu has been based on the Android kernel it doesn’t use the Dalvik Virtual Machine used by Android and as such apps are incompatible between the two, but without the ability to run applications natively and a virtual machine, performance could possible be better than Android.

Ubuntu for phones also features a new lockscreen that they have dubbed the welcome screen due to all your side gestures being available from that screen and you don’t have to perform an unlock gesture, whilst the welcome screen also features a circular pattern that shows important info from your apps.

Just like Ubuntu for the desktop, Ubuntu for phones gives high priority to search, allowing the user to search by swiping down from the top of the device and as the user types, the relevant content shows on the display.

Furthermore Ubuntu for phones enables the user to dock their handset and connect to a keyboard and mouse for a desktop PC like experience.

For those that would like to learn more about Ubuntu for phones we have embedded a video that lets you know all about it below, so don’t forget to mash that play button and check out the footage, which lasts just on 22-minutes.

As for when we can expect to see smartphones starting to ship with Ubuntu for phones pre-installed on handsets, the word is it is expected they will begin shipping early in 2014, so we do have a bit of a wait on our hands before we see devices start to become available.

Are any of our readers excited about Ubuntu for phones?