The smartphone market is not a friendly place for new players. Andy Rubin himself, who is considered the father of Android, found out about it. His founding company, Essential Products, managed to launch only one product on the market and is already talking about its sale.
Andy Rubin wanted to revolutionize the smartphone market. It might seem that the man responsible for the creation of Android is able to make a real revolution. However, Essential Products has produced only one smartphone model so far. This is Essential PH-1, which showed up in the market last fall. It was the first smartphone with Android, which had a screen with the so-called notch, an indentation known from the iPhone X. The creator of Android sold 150,000 copies of its flagship. Considering the fact that this smartphone was available in the stores of one of the largest US operators, this is not a very good result. Many people have criticized Essential PH-1 for a poor quality camera and a high price.
We do not know yet what will happen to Essential Products
Journalists from Bloomberg recently published an article in which they refer to informants familiar with the case. According to them, the creator of Android stopped working on another smartphone, which was supposed to be Essential PH-2. However, the engineers working on this project were to be delegated to work on a smart speaker with a voice assistant that would compete with Amazon Alex and Google Home. However, Andi Rubin’s company is in a bad financial situation. According to informants, the sale of the company is considered.
We always have multiple products in development at the same time and we embrace canceling some in favor of the ones we think will be bigger hits. We are putting all of our efforts towards our future, game-changing products, which include mobile and home products.
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) May 24, 2018
Andy Rubin referred via Twitter to rumors that appeared on the web. He stated that his company is developing several projects at the same time. Therefore, the resignation of some of them is the most understandable. After all, Essential Products, like any other company, focuses on the development of these products, which will bring the most profits in the near future. However, this is not the end of rumors. Journalists from The Information received an email, which Andy Rubin addressed to his employees. He wrote in it that currently nobody (including him) knows what solution will be the best for the company. He also noted that he consults various scenarios with bankers. One of them may be the sale of the company. However, Essential Products definitely does not end its activity.
Source: Bloomberg, The Information
