Essential Phone | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 18 Oct 2018 16:19:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Essential Phone | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Essential sheds 30 percent of its workforce https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/android/damien-cox/essential-sheds-30-percent-of-its-workforce/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/android/damien-cox/essential-sheds-30-percent-of-its-workforce/#respond Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:45:16 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=391353 The future of Essential was in question earlier this year, as the company abandoned plans for a successor to its underwhelming flagship smartphone. Sadly, the company has hit another bump in the road, as 30 percent of its employees have reportedly been made redundant. Essential had a tough time when it debuted its first smartphone …

The post Essential sheds 30 percent of its workforce first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The future of Essential was in question earlier this year, as the company abandoned plans for a successor to its underwhelming flagship smartphone. Sadly, the company has hit another bump in the road, as 30 percent of its employees have reportedly been made redundant.

Essential had a tough time when it debuted its first smartphone last year, struggling to gain a foothold in an already oversaturated market. 2017’s Essential Phone pioneered the edge-to-edge display and with it the divisive notch, as well as set a new precedence for third-party smartphones to update Android on day-one. This was thanks to Essential founder Andy Rubin given his time co-creating Google’s Android.

Aside from the hindering 3-month delay and subsequent embarrassing leak of personal data, many were ultimately put off by its flagship pricing, yet debatably modest hardware. Not even a rapid drop in price from $700 to $250 could save the company from its hugely underwhelming sales. This in turn caused the once-$1-billion-company to withdraw its second flagship smartphone early in 2018.

With reports that the company was considering putting itself up for sale, the future of Essential hasn’t been certain. Recent layoffs put one more nail in the coffin, however, as inside sources tell Bloomberg that its 120-strong staff has been cut by up to 30 percent.

“This has been a difficult decision to make. We are very sorry for the impact on our colleagues who are leaving the company and are doing everything we can to help them with their future careers,” Essential said in its official statement. “We are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us deliver a truly game changing consumer product.”

It looks like Essential hasn’t bowed out of the smartphone market in its entirety, as the company is currently gearing up to launch a smaller handset with a focus on AI. Overall, Essential hopes to craft a device that can answer people for its user, with a working prototype set to be showcased by the end of the year.

KitGuru Says: It’s a shame to see Essential dipping out of the flagship market, as it did bring forward a few new ideas widely adopted on the scene. Our thoughts go out to the affected staff, who will hopefully manage to find their feet moving forward.

The post Essential sheds 30 percent of its workforce first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/android/damien-cox/essential-sheds-30-percent-of-its-workforce/feed/ 0
Android co-founder’s first smartphone launch brought in less than 90K sales https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/android-co-founders-first-smartphone-launch-brought-in-less-than-90k-sales/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/android-co-founders-first-smartphone-launch-brought-in-less-than-90k-sales/#respond Tue, 13 Feb 2018 18:14:11 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=364084 After leaving Google, Android co-founder, Andy Rubin set out on a new venture, opting to build his own smartphone start-up called ‘Essential'. The company made headlines over the last year with the Essential Phone, sporting a bezel-free design with a camera in the center of the front panel. Unfortunately, it looks like the design didn't …

The post Android co-founder’s first smartphone launch brought in less than 90K sales first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
After leaving Google, Android co-founder, Andy Rubin set out on a new venture, opting to build his own smartphone start-up called ‘Essential'. The company made headlines over the last year with the Essential Phone, sporting a bezel-free design with a camera in the center of the front panel. Unfortunately, it looks like the design didn't catch on with many consumers.

This week, industry research firm IDC, has reported that the Essential Phone sold less than 90,000 units during its first six months on the market, showing that Essential is still a long way from becoming a successful/profitable smartphone company.

Obviously, being a brand new company, nobody was expecting Essential to compete toe to toe with Samsung or other top companies in the Android arena. However, overall sales are still quite low. It all just goes to show that even for someone who helped create Android, competing in the saturated high-end smartphone market is still a huge challenge to take on.

Since launch, the Essential Phone has had a price drop to $499 and will likely receive another aggressive price cut this year. We saw the phone sell for as low as $399 during a limited sale late last year, so profit margins are likely going to be low. If enough money can't be raised through sales of the first Essential Phone, then we may not end up seeing a successor hit the market.

KitGuru Says: The Essential Phone certainly catches the eye when you look at it, and being a start-up in a notoriously hard to crack market, I'm sure Essential wasn't expecting blockbuster sales. Still, it will be interesting to see if Essential can stick around long enough for round 2, with a second smartphone down the line.

The post Android co-founder’s first smartphone launch brought in less than 90K sales first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/matthew-wilson/android-co-founders-first-smartphone-launch-brought-in-less-than-90k-sales/feed/ 0
Essential asked customers for their drivers licenses and then leaked them https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/essential-asked-customers-for-their-drivers-licenses-and-then-leaked-them/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/essential-asked-customers-for-their-drivers-licenses-and-then-leaked-them/#comments Thu, 31 Aug 2017 10:08:13 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=345741 The road to launch for the Essential Phone has been long and filled with twists and turns. However, this week's screw up trumps previously missed shipping dates and delays by far. Last night, Essential sent out an email to some customers asking for their drivers license to verify their address. The goal was to prevent …

The post Essential asked customers for their drivers licenses and then leaked them first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The road to launch for the Essential Phone has been long and filled with twists and turns. However, this week's screw up trumps previously missed shipping dates and delays by far. Last night, Essential sent out an email to some customers asking for their drivers license to verify their address. The goal was to prevent fraud but unfortunately, the email address wasn't configured right, so when customers replied, their information didn't just go to Essential, it went to everyone who received the original email.

The leak meant that several dozen pre-order customers had their information shared with strangers. At first, many thought this may have been a phishing attempt as it is such an odd request for a company to make. That turned out not to be the case, instead, this is just a situation where a poorly thought out idea just got too far.

As you would expect, Essential and Android co-founder, Andy Rubin has responded to the situation, apologising for the “humiliating” screw up and confirming that around 70 customers were affected:

“Yesterday, we made an error in our customer care function that resulted in personal information from approximately 70 customers being shared with a small group of other customers. We have disabled the misconfigured account and have taken steps internally to add safeguards against this happening again in the future. We sincerely apologize for our error and will be offering the impacted customers one year of LifeLock.”

“Being a founder in an intensely competitive business means you occasionally have to eat crow. It's humiliating, it doesn't taste good, and often, it's a humbling experience. As Essential's founder and CEO, I’m personally responsible for this error and will try my best to not repeat it.”

On the plus side, the Essential Phone is actually shipping now, after months of delays. Reviewers seem to be impressed by the tech too, so as long as this mistake doesn't put customers off en-mass, then it looks like the Essential Phone will end up doing quite well.

KitGuru Says: On the surface, Essential's intentions were good but it is clear that the execution of this wasn't thought out well enough. Someone along the way should have pointed out the pitfalls of this idea. That said, Essential is still a very new company, hopefully it will learn from this experience and do better next time.

The post Essential asked customers for their drivers licenses and then leaked them first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/essential-asked-customers-for-their-drivers-licenses-and-then-leaked-them/feed/ 3