From The Verge:
Essential is shutting down less than three years after the startup unveiled its first smartphone. The company’s only complete product, the Essential Phone, sold poorly and received mixed reviews. A follow-up phone was canceled, and a number of other promised devices — like a smart home assistant and operating system — never materialized.
After the wet fart that was the Essential Phone, Andy Rubin is back with Project Gem (via Gizmodo):
This looks very interesting and appealing in all the ways Microsoft’s recently announced, dual-screen, not-meant-for-your-pocket Surface Duo isn’t.
The questions are: A) Will it launch? and B) Will it gain traction?
As much as I shit on the Essential Phone, I’m honestly interested to see how baked Project Gem is.
Android inventor Andy Rubin is in deep shit. California superior court documents were made public yesterday from a civil complaint filed by Andy Rubin’s ex-wife Rie Hirabaru Rubi:
The lawsuit, which was filed last October but was temporarily sealed by the court, alleges that Andy Rubin and his former lawyer conspired to defraud Rie Rubin by convincing her to sign a prenuptial agreement that later barred her from sharing any part of her husband’s financial gains. Rie Rubin, who is also seeking a divorce in a separate family court, is suing to invalidate that prenuptial agreement and to potentially lay claim to a portion of Andy Rubin’s net worth, which court documents estimate to be around $350 million.
While the lawsuit never explicitly states that Google paid $90 million as part of an exit package following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct in 2014, it does state that “Rubin concealed his income” and that his wife “even now does not understand the full scope of his finances.” Rie Rubin also alleged that her husband opened a separate bank account a few months before he left Google in October 2014 to receive his earnings and make “hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to other women.”
If these allegations true, Andy Rubin sounds like a great guy.
The original complaint delves into the former Google executive’s alleged “affairs with multiple women.” Some of those affairs, the suit states, included “‘ownership’ relationships with other women, whereby Rubin would pay for their expenses in exchange for offering them to other men.” The complaint includes two messages from Andy Rubin’s email account, which his wife claims to have viewed, detailing those relationships.
So Rubin had dreams of being a pimp. Who knew!
From The Verge, The Essential Phone 2 has reportedly been canceled:
Essential has canceled plans to develop a second phone and is exploring selling off the entire company, according to Bloomberg. Much of the details remain up in the air. Talks of a sale sound like they aren’t very far along, and the report says that Essential still has plans for future products.
One thing that does sound certain is that Essential’s second phone — at least as it was originally planned — isn’t going to happen. Bloomberg says the development was canceled and that engineers are now working on a smart home product, which is supposed to be released next year. That may be the Echo competitor that Essential announced a year ago, but which we haven’t heard a word about since.
The Essential Phone shipped months and months after they said it would be available last May, and then when it did launch, they cut the price $200.
Andy Rubin created the Android operating system, and he came to market with a decent phone, but the Android market is very crowded and Rubin clearly was not able to convince people to buy his phone over a Google or Samsung phone.
Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android mobile operating system, launched his own, new phone called the Essential Phone back in May and earlier today Dieter Bohn reported the Essential Phone dropped $200 in price (always a sign of a smash hit):
Essential is slashing the price of its eponymous phone, down to $499 at its website. That’s a $200 price cut from the original $699 price, less than two months after it began shipping to customers. There is really no other way to read the move except as a signal that it wasn’t selling well at $699 — especially given that the only US 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.
I’m not sure what Andy Rubin expected. The market is extremely crowded, even if you take out the iPhone. Competing with just Samsung for Android market share is plenty of competition.
Let’s not forget the Essential Phone didn’t ship on time back in July.
Rubin’s first Essential blog post, Why I started Essential, kinda sorta sheds some light on things, but I’m still left confused:
For all the good Android has done to help bring technology to nearly everyone it has also helped create this weird new world where people are forced to fight with the very technology that was supposed to simplify their lives. Was this what we had intended? Was this the best we could do?
I left that night reflecting deeply on what was great and what was frustrating with the current state of technology today. After another long talk with my friend we decided that I needed to start a new kind of company using 21st century methods to build products for the way people want to live in the 21st century.
I don’t use Android devices, but are people “fighting” with their Android phones? I’m also not convinced the Essential Phone distinguishes itself from other Android phones like the Pixel 2 and the Galaxy 8.
Nerds are getting great at building products, but they have to get better at marketing them. I recommend they read every book by Seth Godin for starters.
The new phone from the creator of Android didn’t ship when he said it would:
The new phone from Android creator Andy Rubin appears to be delayed.
When he announced the Essential smartphone at Recode’s Code Conference in May, Rubin said it would start shipping within 30 days, The Verge reported. The company also started accepting pre-orders for the $699 device.
But more than 30 days have passed since then, and Essential isn’t shipping the phone yet.
Creating a computer operating system doesn’t mean you have any idea how to design and market a successful phone.
The Essential Phone isn’t as essential as Andy Rubin thinks it is.
Since I’ve taken one jab at Android, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind readers this was Rubin’s vision of Android:
Rubin’s grand vision of Android was barely an evolution of Palm Pilot OS.
Android wasn’t designed for multi-touch which is why it took so long for Android UI to approach the velvet-y smoothness iOS had from the beginning.