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Essential Announces $200 (29%) Discount on Phones -- Price Dropped To $499 (cnet.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Android-announcements dept.

An anonymous reader quote CNET: The heavily hyped, Andy Rubin-backed Essential phone launched late in August. Now, two months later, its price has been cut from $699 to $499. The news was announced in a Sunday blog post by company president Niccolo de Masi. He said the price cut comes in lieu of the company spending money on an expensive marketing campaign. "We could have created a massive TV campaign to capture your attention," Masi wrote, "but we think making it easier for people to get their hands on our first products is a better way to get to know us." A spokesperson added to this, telling CNET, "We've heard from many people that once they got their hands on an Essential Phone they were hooked by the device's unique look and feel... it was a strategic decision to invest in bold pricing to get our products into more hands instead of traditional marketing such as TV to generate awareness and word of mouth."
"There is really no other way to read the move except as a signal that it wasn't selling well at $699," counters the Verge, "especially given that the only U.S. carrier stores it's available in have 'Sprint' above the door. It certainly doesn't help that it now has to face the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL head-to-head."

"To help salve the burn that customers who paid the full price might be feeling, the company is offering a $200 Essential Store 'friends & family code' to be used towards the purchase of another phone or a module."

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Unique look and feel? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's an Android phone, that looks and feels like an Android phone. What makes it unique? Reading their web site, I'm not seeing anything compelling. Anyone bought one and found something unique in it?

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    1. Re:Unique look and feel? by PPalmgren · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Motorola has a good hold on that market. Their android skinning is very limited and their phones have already been in that ballpark. I was interested in the essential phone, but at the price compared to my Moto Z it just wasn't worth it.

    2. Re:Unique look and feel? by samwichse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would consider one if it had a headphone jack.

      I might buy one if it had stereo speakers. My current phone has both of these and I find them such useful features I'll never buy a phone again without them.

      As it is, as soon as I saw the lack of the jack, I just said "nope" and moved on.

      Way to have "courage," Essenial. Courage to remove features before you've even established yourself.

  2. Re:Overpriced, over hyped NOBODY by fred6666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why would you trust the hardware switch anymore than the software switch? In both cases you have to trust the vendor.

  3. j/k by cloud.pt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Many around here would still prefer to pay full price if it brought them a headphone jack, replaceable battery, uSD support, IP67 or above, dual SIM and OLED tech, and maybe 2-4 extra GB of RAM. Hell, I bet they would even pay iPhone X 256GB numbers.

    Now seriously, with all of the above, that would make this a perfect phone.Not just essential.