Those who might have been waiting for the second phone from Essential are in for some bad news. For the phone is reported to have been canceled altogether. If that is not all, even the company too is believed to be up for sale.
That said, those who might not have heard of Essential can be spared too. For the company began to lose its steam soon after it launched its first smartphone. That notwithstanding someone of the stature of Andy Rubin being the driving force – read CEO – behind Essential. Andy Rubin has also been the co-founder of Android, which means he does know a thing or two about the platform better than anybody else.
In fact, Andy Rubin had also famously stated he would be creating a new Android iteration that would cure what he described as the smartphone addiction. That envisaged extensive use of AI concepts to ensure users were less inclined to check their notifications every once in a while. Not known though if that still holds.
However, while the company having given up on developing its second smartphone almost seems a certainty, whether the company too is indeed up for sale remains shrouded in mystery. For some sources also mentioned the company might still be in the phone business after all. Its just that it won’t be into developing the actual phone hardware itself, instead of outsourcing that to Foxconn.
Essential meanwhile claimed their engineers have since been reallocated to a smart home product which again is being considered to be a rival to the Amazon Echo series of devices. The company had promised a smart home device last years, and it seems that might finally be taking off this time even though it is at the cost of a new smartphone.
As for the first handset the company unveiled, it ended up being plagued by numerous software issues. A couple of updates did set things right to some extent through the phone never could set the sales chart on fire. No wonder the phone found around 150,000 buyers even though it had started with a bang, what with its edge-to-edge display winning acclaim all over. The superb build quality of the first gen Essential too went for a lot of praise.
Under the circumstances, it would be really interesting to see what comes of Essential in the coming days.
