The Aquaris M10 10.1-inch tablet that has been used to offer what Canonical is calling the "convergent experience" does not boast the best specs on the market and thus the speed at which it will run desktop applications has to be seen. It is manufactured by a Spanish company.

iTWire was not offered a device for evaluation.

Canonical has tried in the past to undertake the development of just such a device but failed to raise the necessary funds through crowdsourcing. The idea of having a simple device that can be both mobile and fixed is one that the company was first to advance.

Microsoft borrowed this idea when it developed its Continuum technology which is by no means a finished product. But then again, Microsoft copying other companies' ideas is nothing new.

Canonical chief executive Jane Silber was quoted as saying in a media release: "We’re bringing you everything you've come to expect from your Ubuntu PC, now on the tablet with BQ, soon on smartphones. This isn’t a phone interface stretched to desktop size - it's the right user experience and interaction model for the given situation. Also, in terms of applications, we have something no other OS can provide: a single, visual framework and set of tools for applications to run on any type of Ubuntu smart device."

The M10 has both telephony and messaging applications and hence can theoretically be used for communication as well.

A monitor, bluetooth mouse and keyboard can be connected to it to be used as a PC. Exactly how this scales is unknown.

Ubuntu released a few phones last year but they were not widely available. iTWire's request for a review device at the time went unanswered. Thus it is impossible to speak with any certainty about the quality of hardware sold under the Canonical name; all we have are claims.