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Not Many People Are Buying Andy Rubin's iPhone-Killer Essential Phone, It Seems (fiercewireless.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Essential Products has sold an estimated 5,000 phones through Sprint since the gadget made its big retail debut in the United States earlier this month, according to estimates from BayStreet Research. That figure would put Essential, whose maker became a unicorn without shipping handset, well below market heavyweights like Apple and Samsung, which typically sell tens of millions of phones per quarter in the United States. BayStreet tracks shipments of phones and other devices across the United States. Essential representatives didn't respond to requests for comment on the BayStreet estimates. BayStreet also clarified that its 5,000 figure is an estimate of Essential's sell-through (when a customer buys a product from a retailer) rather than its sell-in (when a retailer buys something from a manufacturer). Sprint is the exclusive carrier for the phone; most phones in the United States are sold through carriers. However, Essential also offers an unlocked version of its gadget. Essential, the first major startup from Android founder Andy Rubin's venture capital firm Playground, currently sells the $699 Android-powered Essential Phone through Sprint and promises to release the Essential Home smart-home hub later this year. Essential was named as one of FierceWireless' top 15 startups to watch in 2017.
Personally, the Essential seems like an acceptable phone, but it's also not very compelling compared to the other phones in that price range.
If the Essential is still around when it comes time for me to replace my phone (I'm guessing that's probably 2 or 3 years away), I will certainly consider it as an option.
I wouldn't want to be a beta tester for a 1st gen device with no pedigree. Maybe after a few iterations, sure.
... of things that are supposed to be an {X}-killer, but flame out. I've lost track of the number of MMOs, for example, that were supposed to be a WoW-killer.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
I really haven't understood all the hype around the Essential phone. How is it fundamentally different than all the other smart phones on the market?
Oh, and the iPhone has a pretty small market share, so calling something an iPhone killer seem to be setting a pretty low bar...
* User-replaceable battery * SD card support * Non-giant (5") screen
Yeah. Honestly this sounds like one of the worst product launches in recent memory. I have seen no marketing for this device. Additionally I have heard NO talk of this device anywhere but here. I cant think of anyway for launch the phone worse than they have. It is like they are trying to fail.
No? Then it's not glitzy high-tech enough for me.
On top of that, releasing it right before Apple's big event is a surefire way to kill any buzz you might have managed to eke out in the general population. The moment the iPhone X hit the news circuits, the Essential phone was guaranteed to get zero additional coverage from mainstream media unless it had already built up such a huge head of steam that it couldn't be ignored. That clearly didn't happen.
As technically interesting as the phone might be, it's difficult to trust a small manufacturer and ecosystem to secure my private information on my devices against apps, 3rd parties, and hackers doing things that I don't know are being done. Essential phone -- what do you want to bet that they take any of that shit seriously, or have the resources to do so? Cmon, even Google doesn't police its apps and infrastructure well, what are the chances that a down-the-rung OEM does?
To be a serious player in the consumer phone market, with the functionality and support that you need to do a good job with security, features, apps, etc. you need a big team. And a big team is only supportable by selling millions and millions of phones. Anything less and they'll start to cheap out on these things.
As much as you may hate Google, Apple, Samsung, etc, they have the people they need to do the necessary jobs. A small player like this -- what odds do you put on that being true? Do you want to be the early adopter for them who is their beta tester?
Perhaps you should Google the price for an iPhone 8... The base 64GB model is $699. Expensive yes, but not out of the realm of the price of the Samsung phones, which are actually more expensive ($758) at the same size memory. And having some self control with your money, and not spending on something you view as frivolous, or not worth even $119 (guess you won't be getting a smart phone), can be commended (in part). But you certainly can't judge the rest of the world by your yardstick.
There is no reason for the device to exist other than Andy Rubin wants to make a phone and knows some VCs. Blah Blah IoT which is still in the future
OnePlus at least came out with good prices
One of "top 15 startups to watch in 2017"? Why was this company chosen so? I guess because of Andy Rubin.
People put too much faith on famous names. Some people can consistently make a difference but most can't. Also success most of the time depends both on capacity and luck/being in the right place at the right time.
Similar pricing as the Galaxy S8. Weaker distribution channels. Unknown brand. Releases months later.
It could compete with One Plus and other cheap brands but it's too expensive for that.
Its main advantage is the 128 GB storage but the market for that amount of storage is too small. Especially outside of the Apple world.
If it weren't for Andy Rubin, we wouldn't even have heard of this phone. And those who don't know who Rubin is definitely never heard about this phone to begin with.
Why not one of the other three big carriers which may have better quality services or plans? Maybe I'm ignorant, but if the phones are capable, like Google, sell direct with all US frequencies and bands, carrier unlocked, then customers can get a SIM from the carrier or MVNO of their choice.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
It's an unrepairable atrocity. If I wanted such a piece of shit, I'd already be buying one of the other epoxied-shut phones. Or an iBendOver iPhone.
Sorry... screens break, USB ports wear out and batteries need to be replaced long before I feel like being extorted out the cost of a whole new phone. If I can't easily do those two things, I'm not buying your shit.
Sprint phones are all CDMA, while GSM is the better standard used by more carriers, hmm? i wonder if Essential Products thought of that?
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Sounds like you just want a flip phone with a half decent web browser. Most people want/need a bit more in their phones. Esp GPS. If a company made a phone w/o GPS i doubt anybody would buy it.
Some of them did damage though, like the Samsung Galaxy SIII onwards. Basically Samsung's phablet strategy. Something I predicted in 2005 on slashdot well before the iPhone https://slashdot.org/comments....
Mine fell between the sections of my couch, about a foot, and it totally destroyed the screen. Waiting on a insurance replacement so that I can possibly change my lease with Sprint.
Nobody sells a proper case (the only things I can find were holsters), and all the screen protectors have miserable reviews because they lift at the edges.
The super smooth back needs a little bit of grip to prevent it sliding, and I'll probably laser cut a Talon grip sheet into something useful if Sprint won't let me change.
1 star - would not recommend...
When you can get a 399$ Blackberry Priv or a Asus Zenfone 3, both with 64gb/4gb with a sliding keyboard or a dual sim ! Where is the deal?
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
....the only people idiotic enough to pay a boutique phone price like an Apple, are people deeply invested in brand-identification.
There's a reason the Volkswagen W8 bombed so spectacularly: people dumping piles of $ on anything need other people to constantly RECOGNIZE that they've done so.
-Styopa
Agree about the need for GPS. Why carry two devices when one does the trick. Ever gotten lost driving a car without a GPS or its software is out of date? A phone with Google Maps saves the day. One of our cars has a GPS system, but is out of date. The update software costs ~$180, and we don't know how up to date it is. Once we went looking for an address but when we got there the car's GPS map showed we were in the middle of nowhere with no roads. My wife as navigator with her phone and google maps got us there.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
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The fact I don't see apps tells me 2 things: someone hasn't used a phone this decade, and that sums up the multitude of essential things that are on the bottom list, like the first 3 and Bluetooth.
There is a reason the GPS market is down, and that's because of smartphone navigation now being better than single-purpose devices. Miles better.
There's a reason the non-slr digital camera market has been obliterated, and that's the ubiquitous High Quality cameraphone. "The best camera is the camera you have with you all the time" - random professional photographer blog I can't recall the name.
There's a reason the radio market is also going down the drain, and that's because Spotify or whatever music service running on your phone
connects to your car using bluetooth, while also providing you hands-free calls and navigation audio cues.
Have you ever used a smart bracelet/watch/band? Bluetooth. Have you ever used wireless headphones? Bluetooth. Have you ever used any smart sensors/devices like HRMs, scales, sphygmomanometers, oximeters, cadence counters, power meters, foot pods, bicycle computers, lamps, speakers, KEYBOARDS, MOUSES, VAPING MODS, AUDIO ROUTERS?....... (breathing deeply).... Bluetooth (and very rarely Wifi)
Oh, and fingerprint scanning. We don't use phones for paying things much this side of the pond, but even here we appreciate something better than a pin or pattern, and avoiding a power button click for screen-on. Then again, we don't have a Big Brother government (that we know of) and have to constantly think about conspiracy theories. Anyway, now I can say people like my grandparents CAN use a locked phone, through fingerprint scanners, but would never think about a pin or password. Due to this, both me and them, and even the couple among themselves exchange emails and whatsapp chats, with sensitive information such as home bills, bank stuff, family photos much easier, and with confidence of its safety. You are probably less old than they are, yet you are still stuck in the past. Once upon a time, Slashdot was a place for forward-thinkers, but now, despite still loving it, it starts to feel a bit like the "geriatric programmers club" or "70's born geekden" - IT-centric guys who are past mid-life and no longer care for any type of comfort zone violation. And I bet they're gonna blame it all on their kids providing too much fuss or the cheesy they think of new generation trends.
Back to the list, most of what you list as "need" is definitely essential. Although I've learned to live without an sd card (that cable argument you used pretty much sums it, I also prefer cable, because I have terabytes on my many PCs) or even though I rarely ever need battery mid-day, I long lost the weird sense of comfort that replaceable batteries once provided. Brands won't charge much more for replacement service than the risk's worth of going through self-repair, and by the time I need a new battery I'll probably already want the latest chipset and RAM anyway - I'm now using my phone more than all of my PCs combined, so it matters, and it's still less than I spend on ANY PC. Likely everyone else that bothered to give modern smartphones will agree on that.
Sounds like you need to earn a few million dollars to pay some Chinese company to do a one-off.
Agree about the need for GPS. Why carry two devices when one does the trick. Ever gotten lost driving a car without a GPS or its software is out of date? A phone with Google Maps saves the day. One of our cars has a GPS system, but is out of date. The update software costs ~$180, and we don't know how up to date it is. Once we went looking for an address but when we got there the car's GPS map showed we were in the middle of nowhere with no roads. My wife as navigator with her phone and google maps got us there.
My boss takes his standalone GPS everywhere. He says it is very helpful to have a separate device to navigate with when is on conference calls. He travels a lot and also has to be on conference calls. For me and you and most other people, a separate car isn't worth the weight and space, but there are always edge cases.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
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I think he meant a Gnu/Linux phone.
If I got lost without a GPS (HO MY GOD!) you know what? I'll ask for help, read a map (electronic or not), ... I don't how people did 15-20 years ago without a GPS beside them 24/7.
And you know you can use Google Map (or any other maps) without a GPS. You don't "need" a GPS. People will also say (soon) they "need" an assistant like Google Assitant, Siri, ... because you know, what people will do if they do not have an assistant remembering them to breath, take a bath, brush their teeth, eat, take their children to school, go to work, ...
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
If it's failing, maybe there should be a qualifier around "iPhone-Killer" in the headline. Or, leave it out, because "...-killer" was played out five years ago.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
They said Ambient OS would be "open source, like android," but there's nothing about that on their web site. Give me a phone on which I can run software I built from source, and that would be worth dropping some cash on. As it is, I have a perfectly nice Google phone that is sort-of open source-ish. I realize that this is a bit of a niche, but it astonishes me that nobody has attempted to suck in developers by doing this. An open source phone ecosystem would really enable some out-of-the-box innovation. But no, this is just Yet Another Brick.
so I'm guessing you hunt all your food too. And you dug your own well for fresh water, or got lucky enough to live near drinkable water. Oh all the fuzzes of societal evolution keeping us from the joys of the past...
In contrast: you already breath automatically; and baths were much less frequent some decades ago; and you didn't even brush your teeth (which you now can chose to use electrical brushes too); taking children to school? You must mean pre-school right? Because if you have to work on location all day, it must be that you can't have meetings or multi-task through a smart(er) phone? By 1st grade they'll likely be picked up by buses; do I even need to mention the amount of jobs that didn't disappear but morphed since the industrial revolution? According to most specialists, evolution isn't trivializing jobs, it is simply making the physically and psychologically strenuous ones better, and getting people where it matters instead of where they feel accustomed. But of course, old dog can't learn new tricks. Or can they?
It's missing a standard 3.5mm audio jack, so I'm GLAD it's not selling as well. If you can't include ESSENTIAL functionality you deserve to fail.
FTFY
That's why I said 'my' essential phone ;) I don't need my phone connected to my scale, watch, lamps (wtf ?!)... I don't use any keyboard, mouse, ... with my _phone_. I think you listen/read/eat/swallow/... too much "you're so 2016.." marketing propaganza. You don't "need" it. Professional marketers say you need it (and you listen to them).
And I'm not the grey beard old fart you think I am (I work in IT and love technology a lot!). But we don't need everything to be connected and traceable 24/7. Same thing for things like Amazon Echo where you have a microphone listening in your house 24/7 and send it to a remote server for "analysis". I'm not sure people really realize the future implications/risks of that. Add to that IoT connected to the internet 24/7 without any serious security protection ("mom and dad" blindly trust this stuff).
Back to phone... If you 100% trust all your 24/7 connected stuff, like to throw money on every new shiny stuff because 'it's trendy', ... good for you. It's so cool you can control your lamp (again.. wtf?!)... I'm jealous. :D
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
Essential means the bare minimum to have a working device. Just going by the name I was surprised it was meant to be an upper end phone. The name is poorly chosen, heck BLING BLING BANANA PHONE would probably sell more product.
Yes, my super expensive (10 bucks) multicolor, dimmable led lamp, which can (emphasis "can", on/off still on the wall) be controlled by my phone and will even play music that I stream to it. As opposed to having a hundreds of bucks installation of dimmers, and I won't even go to the cost of wall control panels for color. Welcome to 2017. BAM!
Nevertheless, that's your phone, that's your needs. No argument there. Now assistants? I never mentioned those. Those will take years before they become useful AND usable.
Last I heard, Amazon Echo or was it Google Home was used to dial 911 automatically and saved a life. That happenned because someone agreed for anonymous usage data which, like psychologists, can also be enforced to break privacy for the greater good. I'm not saying I agree, I'm saying there is a collective argument ongoing, just like the dangers of incoming AI singularity, and your opinion or mine aren't the the only ones worth caring for.
Bu once again, I don't have to bother on privacy or security. I simply decide not to because I do things willing and knowingly. It's a perk from: 1. having an education and living in a half decent society, not to call it nation because I don't really put that much thought into nationalism and shit like people with flagpoles on their porches do; and 2. I don't consider myself that important, nor am I so stupid as to not read the fucking manual of whatever banking app or payment system my phone happens to support. Just imagine if the day the first guy got a credit card, deciding it was dangerous to take it outside he just left it home whenever he wouldn't feel to use it. Then his kid, who just happened to want a BRAND NEW CAMARO picked it up. Or his gardener, I think you get the point.
I use to think trendy stuff wasn't worth the overhead too. Then I removed my head from my ass, and remembered my life is actually this well right now because I had a time in my life where I gave a fuck about trying new things. I bet you had that too, or else a camera on a phone wouldn't be important. Nor wifi. Nor audio jack
After reading this story I realized I had been in my local Sprint shop just 3 days ago and did not see a single poster/mention of this 'special' device. If no one knows about it, how can they be expected to purchase one?
It's just too fucking expensive. Yes, it's a cool phone, but fuck all if I'm going to pay $700 or more for one of them.
There are LOADS of perfectly acceptable feature-loaded phones you can buy for $200 to $300. No one has managed to explain why this phone is a good deal for $700.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
> Linux is just a kernel. It's never been more than a kernel.
At work, when customers call me and ask about Linux, they aren't talking about the kernel, but an entire OS. Every person I've met in person who uses Linux is talking about an entire OS. You have to ask what TYPE of Linux (meaning distro), but it's generally called Linux. It's the common usage, and trying to retroactively turn it into "just the kernel" because of pedantry or even a legitimate desire to provide brand awareness of GNU is not helpful to any fucking conversation anyone has ever had. It has never helped a single fucking person.
When he says he wants a phone that uses Linux, you know EXACTLY what he means. He's not expressing a preference about macro or micro or whatever kernels. You know this.
Housing its main distinguishing feature , while hi-end it is lower priority to very capable less costly aluminum & gorilla glass standard. Also, Does not offer water proof or headphone jack or memory card expansion. iPhone 7 offers waterproof so a tradeoff for headphone and mem card. Likewise other non water proof phones offer head phone and or mem card. Mediocre camera but offers a nifty magnetic accessory. Folks essentially want the base product features first with accessories as the name implies secondary. Essential was supposed to offer plain Android along with other compatible products soon to be announced. There could still be room for Essential device but should prioritize price and features better. They really goofed on the housing trade offs. They positioned the device poorly against iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8. Sprint is discounting to a high mid tier level but that limits TAM to Sprint subs ok with a contract lock-in. However, Essential seems to be more of a Pixel type device. Anyway expect the prices to come down if significant stocks built. Hopefully they were wise to run a small launch batch. Cut their losses on the PH1 model and reconfigure. Sprint can help firesale excess stocks overseas thru sister co Brightstar.
My favorite reason for people not wanting to buy a phone
SDCard slot: no
Because not all OEM's want to pay M$ for having a SDCard
M$ owns FAT, any phone that uses a SDCard slot has to pay M$ a license fee
Why would any company want to go to bed with M$ is beyond me, I'm just glad there is a choice, I always choose no sdcard, I backup everything to either my own cloud or ftp server
Haven't used any M$ since 1997 and very proud of it.
Linux is a kernel. If you want a GNU phone, say a GNU phone. If you want a Ubuntu Phone, say you want a Ubuntu phone.
Language does matter. Telling us you want "Linux" really literally tells us nothing, not simply because we're pedants over here at Slashdot and know Android has a Linux kernel, but also because when people use Linux the way you're using, to refer to the kernel plus some of the userland, you're not really giving us clues as to what exactly you're incorporating into that userland.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
running kitkat the only concern i'm starting to have is security ? ... runs wechat, line and one or two more and prevents me from installing 200 others i dont need
even if had the money to spare
id pass, thanks, unless you get phones with replacable parts like i mean
pico-itx boards and stuff with a simcardslot ?
... well .. fun
it has a little light, a recorder and it can send messages
no ?
cos that would be like
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?