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Any Interest In Rubin's Essential Phone?

AustinIllini

AustinIllini

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Fernandez21 said:
Well, this is bad. Hope Essential can pull through, why does it seem every phone I become a huge fan of(other than the iPhone and Note) fall on hard times soon after? First the Palm Pre, then Moto, then HTC, BB10, and now Essential.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/29...leaves-essential-google-inappropriate-conduct
92dc8e005cd9d351b69bef196c575935.jpg
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I don't think anyone outside of smartphone nerds like us know who Andy Rubin is...
 
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widgeteer

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AustinIllini said:
I don't think anyone outside of smartphone nerds like us know who Andy Rubin is...
Click to expand...

He is the company though. It's not about PR so much as direction. They've already had a pretty big talent drain with top guys jumping ship left and right prior to launch. Now with Rubin exiting, what's left? First device was a gigantic flop that's already experiencing something of a firesale. There just isn't anything to build on at this point.

Company is probably done. Which is really too bad. I was kinda pumped for the whole endeavor.
 
tbayrgs

tbayrgs

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widgeteer said:
He is the company though. It's not about PR so much as direction. They've already had a pretty big talent drain with top guys jumping ship left and right prior to launch. Now with Rubin exiting, what's left? First device was a gigantic flop that's already experiencing something of a firesale. There just isn't anything to build on at this point.

Company is probably done. Which is really too bad. I was kinda pumped for the whole endeavor.
Click to expand...

I think you can take 'probably' out of that first sentence. Any money Essential raised from investors was purely because of Rubin. After their botched launch and this ignominious departure, Essential in done for. Sad as the smartphone industry could use a real kick in the pants, IMO, and I thought Essential might've been onto something.
 
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widgeteer

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tbayrgs said:
I think you can take 'probably' out of that first sentence. Any money Essential raised from investors was purely because of Rubin. After their botched launch and this ignominious departure, Essential in done for. Sad as the smartphone industry could use a real kick in the pants, IMO, and I thought Essential might've been onto something.
Click to expand...

I do believe I agree with every point. As I said, Rubin is the company. There is no value add for Essential without Rubin's involvement.
 
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widgeteer

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KingslayerG5 said:
A fired Rubin means fire sale.

$400? Wait for it to drop to $100 or $200. The Essential is the 2011 HP Touchpad of smartphones.
Click to expand...

You have to be a pretty extreme hobbiest to want the phone at that point though, no? I would imagine updates will die out. Support will be nil.

I'm curious to see what happens with the phones that are out there who purchased the extended warranty. I guess the 3rd party that guarantees the warranty will honor any defects and only needs to maintain a modest stock for replacements. I don't know if the fine print includes guaranteed software updates though.
 
KingslayerG5

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Leave of absence or getting fired, doesn't really matter. Those are just technicalities.

Rubin is rich. Set for life. He can afford never coming back from this leave of absence. Android doesn't really make alot of money for Google the way iPhone does for Apple.

NBC will rehire Matt Lauer again. Marv Albert's was more bizarre and worse. He did some biting before Mike Tyson. Dude is also set for life. Just take the money and run.

Essential Phone for $99.99 very soon. For $199.99, it's still a green light. Clear out inventory. Fire sale time.
 
AustinIllini

AustinIllini

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Michael Goff said:
It isn't about normal people. Investors were investing in Andy Rubin, not the company. And will they now?
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My comment was more a criticism of poor sales.

If Essential sold the number of phones it was expecting to sell, this would be more of an issue. The bigger issue now is that they're not selling phones without MAJOR price cuts.

Right now with poor sales, price cuts, and this Rubin mess, they're in big trouble.
 
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Fernandez21

Fernandez21

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Well, I got mine for $299 so even if there are more price cuts down the road I’m fine, but this sucks because now software updates are out the window, who knows how much longer they will last. As well as anymore mods beyond the 360 camera. Same with the Matte black and ocean depth color options.

Hopefully they’ll get Oreo out soon, it should hold me over until the Note 9 next year.

Or maybe we get lucky and someone purchases them, how cool would it be if google bought them and made the Essential phone an extension of the pixel line?
 
kazmac

kazmac

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Any place but here or there....
Fernandez21 said:
Well, I got mine for $299 so even if there are more price cuts down the road I’m fine, but this sucks because now software updates are out the window, who knows how much longer they will last. As well as anymore mods beyond the 360 camera. Same with the Matte black and ocean depth color options.

Hopefully they’ll get Oreo out soon, it should hold me over until the Note 9 next year.

Or maybe we get lucky and someone purchases them, how cool would it be if google bought them and made the Essential phone an extension of the pixel line?
Click to expand...

That would be great. I am so darn bummed about this as I was looking forward to jumping to the Essential phone with the second gen. A nearly pure Android experience on a beautiful phone for $499 was right up my alley. Guess I'll just watch Razer and other OEMs and bide my time.
 
spriter

spriter

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Wow... they had a wobbly future but this will topple them over. Was close to pulling the trigger out of curiosity but only see this tanking in price and support from here.

Shame but it’s been riddled with issues from the off so maybe this isn’t a great surprise after all. Rubin can live fine but I feel for those that left other ventures to join Essential. Hope they get picked up by other firms (if they’re not already spamming resumes around after this news).
 
jamezr

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C5Longhorn

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If they release the factory images, the phone could develop a cult following just like the Touchpad did. I owned one of those :) with Android loaded on it. It was my first introduction to Android.
 
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Fernandez21

Fernandez21

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jamezr said:
The Essential team says there is a second phone in the works...
They also say the current device will be supported along the same timelines as Googles pixel phones


https://www.reddit.com/r/essential/comments/7g8o3n/biweekly_ama_with_essential_team_nov_29_from/
Click to expand...

Yeah, but with an unstable company that doesn’t mean much. I remember with the original Moto X it was suppose to have fast updates, and it did until Lenovo bought them out. With Ruben taking a leave, who knows what will happen. Will he step down eventually? Who is the interim CEO while he’s on leave? Will they lose their funding? Cause they’re probably not making enough from sales.

This just stinks. Hopefully things get cleared up soon with continued support, but that’s up in the air now. It sucks that this always happens with phones I really like. And they were on the right track, havent used the new camera update, but from what I’ve seen this last update was a huge improvement, and hardware wise the camera should be on par with something like the 6S or S7, both which still have fine cameras even compared to newer flagships.
 
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jamezr

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Fernandez21 said:
Well, here’s some good news. Looks like he’ll be back in a month, asked for the leave to take care of personal matters, probably having to smooth things over with the wife after the Google leak.

Will feel better once he is back, but things look better now than they did a little while ago.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...eave-amid-inappropriate-relationship-reports/
Click to expand...
That is good news. We know they can't be making money right now. So future VC funding is probably tied to Rubin being at the helm.
 
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KingslayerG5

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Read the comments. Some Android users would leave their Pixel 2 in the drawer. Best value for smartphones in 2017. It's like a cross between the OnePlus 3 and ZTE Axon 7 from last year in value.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/11/30/16718930/essential-phone-camera-app-update

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...sential-phone-way-better-than-expected-4.html

1. Build quality: Essential wins
2. Screen: Essential wins
3. Price: Essential wins
4. Camera: Pixel 2 wins
5. Sound: Pixel 2 wins
6. Specs: Draw
Click to expand...
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

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