In the world of Android phones, Essential Phone is definitely a niche brand. Although its founder was Andy Rubin, the founder of the Android system apparently did not care about this startup.
Today 's news from Bloomberg stated that Andy Rubin is considering selling his own Essential Company, mainly including mobile phone hardware products and its patent portfolio, as well as smart home devices and a series of mobile phone accessories to be launched in the future.
In addition, the company's employees may also become part of the transaction, after all, Essential has a large number of engineers from Apple and Google.
Affected by this, the second-generation Essential Phone originally planned to debut this year may also be cancelled.
According to people familiar with the matter, the company has already hired Credit Suisse Group AG to find potential buyers and already has sellers expressing their willingness to acquire. Earlier, Essential had already raised approximately $300 million in investments from several investment institutions including Amazon, Tencent, and Redpoint Ventures.
In addition, Essential has also obtained investment from Hon Hai Precision. The original Essential Phone was also produced and manufactured by Foxconn, while Essential was responsible for product design and software system development.
According to Equidate's analysis, the company's valuation was approximately US$ 100,000 to US$ 1 billion a year ago, and is considered to be among the “unicorns”.
However, making a mobile phone is not a money-saving business. According to insiders, the research and development of the first generation Essential mobile phone has already cost the company about US$100 million, which accounts for about one-third of the total financing. The situation is also very tortuous.
In conjunction with Ai Fan Er (Micro Signal: ifanr) last month’s report , Essential was originally planning to launch new products this year. At that time, Linda Jiang, the head of design, said that he would “focus on improving the camera and camera experience” and would use New material.
However, taking into account the slowdown in the global mobile phone market in 2018, brands with slightly smaller masses have to consider the issue of survival, and Essential Phone naturally cannot survive.
Informed sources said that the total sales volume of the original Essential Phone was probably around 150,000 units, not to mention the various mistakes that occurred frequently in the sales and product sectors in the early days, and the initial price of 699 US dollars also had a vain element.
In addition to weak sales, the company’s internal situation is not very good. There are dozens of hardware and software engineers who chose to leave the company in the first year after the company’s founding, including some senior management staff.
However, in fact, only a single product, Essential Phone still has many highlights worth mentioning: such as "beauty tip" shaped screen, as well as the use of mirror ceramics. On the just-released R1 phone, we can also see the shadows of many early Essential Phones.
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