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Android Creator Puts Essential Up For Sale, Cancels Next Phone (bloomberg.com)
Bloomberg reports that Andy Rubin's Essential Products business is considering selling itself and has canceled development of a new smartphone. The news comes several months after numerous reports suggested that the Essential Phone's sales were tepid. From the report: The startup has hired Credit Suisse Group AG to advise on a potential sale and has received interest from at least one suitor, the people said. Essential is now actively shopping itself to potential suitors, one of the people said. The startup, part of Rubin's incubator Playground Global, has raised about $300 million from several investors, including Amazon, Tencent, and Redpoint Ventures. It was valued at $900 million to $1 billion about a year ago, according to an analysis by Equidate, which runs a market for private company stock.
The startup has spent more than $100 million on developing its first products, about a third of the money it raised to build the company, the people said. Current discussions are focused on a sale of the entire company, including its patent portfolio, hardware products like the original smartphone, an upcoming smart home device and a camera attachment for the phone. Essential's engineering talent, which includes those hired from Apple and Alphabet's Google, would likely be part of a deal. The company hasn't yet made a final decision on a sale, the people said.
The startup has spent more than $100 million on developing its first products, about a third of the money it raised to build the company, the people said. Current discussions are focused on a sale of the entire company, including its patent portfolio, hardware products like the original smartphone, an upcoming smart home device and a camera attachment for the phone. Essential's engineering talent, which includes those hired from Apple and Alphabet's Google, would likely be part of a deal. The company hasn't yet made a final decision on a sale, the people said.
The era of smartphone growth when you could build a new significant player in the smartphone business are over - no matter how good or different you think your device is. There are only a few places left to make profit selling phones:
Of course there are other phone makers. A few will make high margins on specialty devices aimed at niche markets (security, ultra rugged). A few will do very good volumes, especially those backed by the Chinese government and/or serving the ultra low cost Indian market. But nobody but Apple or Samsung will do both, and the remainder are basically making manufacturer margins (5% or less profit) rather than technology company margins (20-40% profit). Everyone else, please don't bother.
"95% of all Slashdot
Their phone itself isn't particularly interesting. There's nothing about it that distinguishes it from every other phone out there. Maybe if they did something like put back features that most/all of the other vendors have deleted, this wouldn't have happened. LineageOS is there for people who want a pure Android without crapware. What we need is hardware without crapware AND WITH the good stuff that is usually missing these days (IR blaster, removable battery, SD card slot, non-curves screen, a bezel without the stupid notch, 3.5mm audio jack). Also, how about designing phones with the expectation of putting them into a case of some sort?
i seen reviews of that phone on youtube and thought they were decent phones, with a nice clean android install without third party bloatware that can not be uninstalled (are you listening samsung) i almost bought one but BestBuy was out of stock so i settled for another Samsung phone which is a nice phone but some things annoy me like not being able to completely uninstall facebook, (only disable it)
You complain about Samsung's software, but then bought one anyway when you could have bought a Pixel, Motorola, or Oneplus without the stupid bloatware.
People like you are the reason companies like Samsung aren't listening.
I remain surprised the "high end" Android phones sell at all, given it seems that the more expensive they are, the fewer key features are included and the more fragile the phone (iPhones? Yes, because iPhone buyers tend to already be locked into the iOS ecosystem, but Android users have alternatives.)
Every flagship Android phone these days is a nearly-identical phablet. If you don't want any of that trendy shit like CRT-inspired rounded glass/corners, lack of a headphone jack, a "notch", an OLED display (sorry, but it still suffers from burn-in and poor daylight readability), etc., prepare to be relegated to low-end garbage phones.
Or Apple, at least until they release their iPhone X-inspired refreshed iPhone line-up, which will make them yet another "me too" in the field of nearly-identical rounded-corner, OLED screen phablets.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Nice phone, but nothing really to set it apart, IMHO.
Definitely not cheap. No headphone jack.
USB-C may be "future proof" but it sure ain't past proof ... only the included cable can be used, not the bazillion USB cables we already have.