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Essential Products, Startup From Android Creator Andy Rubin, Lays Off 30 Percent of Staff (fortune.com)
Essential Products, a startup founded in 2015 by Android creator Andy Rubin, was started to create a smartphone with high-end design features that wasn't associated with a particular operating-system maker. Unfortunately, reaching that goal has been harder than anticipated as the company has laid off about 30 percent of its staff. Fortune reports: Cuts were particularly deep in hardware and marketing. The company's website indicates it has about 120 employees. A company spokesperson didn't confirm the extent of layoffs, but said that the decision was difficult for the firm to make and, "We are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us deliver a truly game changing consumer product." The firm was Rubin's first startup after leaving Google in 2014, which had acquired his co-founded firm, Android, in 2005.
Essential's first phone came out in August 2017, a few weeks later than initially promised. It received mixed reviews, with most critics citing its lower quality and missing features relative to competing smartphones, such as a lack of waterproofing and poor resiliency to damage. The company dropped the price from an initial $699 within weeks to $499, and offered it on Black Monday in November 2017 for $399.
Essential's first phone came out in August 2017, a few weeks later than initially promised. It received mixed reviews, with most critics citing its lower quality and missing features relative to competing smartphones, such as a lack of waterproofing and poor resiliency to damage. The company dropped the price from an initial $699 within weeks to $499, and offered it on Black Monday in November 2017 for $399.
He sold out to Sprint and still didn't listen to consumers and decided it was a good idea to allow a privacy faux pas. I mean, if you are looking to upset the industry you sure as heck cannot look and act just like them to do it!
The company has also announced that in the coming weeks they will be changing their name to "unnecessary".
My god, I hope 30% of the workforce turned out to be an integer number of people.
Nullius in verba
It's not sexy but it's what we want.
Pretty sure that 'we' is vastly overstated.
It has a valuation of $1,000,000,000! I mean it is worth so much! Why would you lay off people?
Apparently they weren't essential personnel.
You've heard of all the clones of the Raspberry Pi SBC? One of them is the Orange Pi. They have a line of DIY kits that will let you build your own phone starting around $40 on AliExpress.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?