Essential Phone 2 reportedly canceled, Android founder may sell company
"We are putting all of our efforts towards our future, game-changing products," says founder Andy Rubin.
The Essential Phone was a promising flop that had us excited for the sequel. But Bloomberg is now reporting that plans for the Essential Phone 2 have been scrapped, and the entire company may be up for sale.
According to Bloomberg, Essential has spent over $100 million developing its first set of products, of which only the original phone, in several colors, and its 360-degree modular camera attachment have shipped so far.
Bloomberg suggests that Essential may try to sell the company as a whole -- including patents, products and its engineering talent -- rather than selling off those parts piecemeal.
We always have multiple products in development at the same time and we embrace canceling some in favor of the ones we think will be bigger hits. We are putting all of our efforts towards our future, game-changing products, which include mobile and home products.
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) May 24, 2018
Company founder Andy Rubin -- also the father of the Android operating system that now powers most of the world's smartphones -- noted in a tweet that Essential was effectively triaging its nascent product line. "We are putting all of our efforts towards our future, game-changing products, which include mobile and home products."
An Essential spokesperson echoed the same comment. Neither Rubin nor the Essential spokesperson explicitly countered the main assertions of the Bloomberg report.
A follow-up story at The Information partially corroborates Bloomberg's story too: It appears Rubin sent his employees an angry memo about the Bloomberg piece, seemingly admitting the company is in trouble.
Alongside the Essential phone and its camera, the company had debuted a smart home hub called the Essential Home almost exactly a year ago.
Originally published May 25, 2:26 p.m. PT.
Update, 3:34 p.m. PT: Added tweeted comment from Rubin; and on May 25 at 7:47 a.m. PT: Adds reference to story from The Information.
