Honestly, I think that this move shows that they failed in optimizing Ubuntu Touch and making it a smooth experience. They realized they won't be able to polish Mir in time, without hardware strong enough that would hide all the glitches. Just my 2¢.

I admire how they turned their failure into a marketing advantage, though.


I do not wish them luck in this campaign - for all they're doing to the GNU/Linux community (Mir especially).
But it will be interesting to watch how (if) they succeed for the sake of learning some marketing skills and holding the final device.

EDIT: On the other hand, I wish them luck hardware-wise. It was about time someone came and said '4.5'' is a max, all beyond 300DPI is unnecessary, battery is one of the key features'...