back to article No one saw it coming: Rubin's Essential phone considered anything but

Andy Rubin's ambitions to create a new consumer electronics ecosystem are floundering at base camp. Sales of Essential's phone, which forms a key part of the strategy, are tepid. Google Play reports a mere 50,000 download of Essential's Camera app so far, the Android Police blog notes. This doesn't paint the full picture, but …

  1. caffeine addict

    "Many people get this phone for the unlocked bootloader and then remove all of the above," writes one Reddit owner. But as we can see from the stats, hardly anybody does that. Just 0.085 per cent of Android owners in the USA unlock their phones.

    These two facts aren't even vaguely connected. The fact that 0.085% of Androids get unlocked has no bearing at all on how many of the Rubins get unlocked. If they're popular with a group who like unlocking phones then they could all be unlocked without affecting that 0.085% stat in any way.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Your point is valid, but to raise a point of pedantry, none of the Essential phones get "unlocked", 'cos they were never locked in the first place.

      So your last point is correct, but not a hypothetical - all Essential phones are unlocked, AND it doesn't affect that 0.085%.

      1. caffeine addict

        Okay, I hadn't noticed that. Makes the original comparison even more random and irrelevant.

        Have your +1. :)

      2. Chronos

        Also, the US is not the world. Some of us aren't subject to the DMCA so aren't afraid to tinker despite all the warnings of the apocalypse, Armageddon, the heat death of the Universe and inter-dimensional rifts caused by people trying to fix or de-traitorify their own sodding property.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I think the author meant to say only 0.085% of Android owners unlock the bootloader. Sure, let's say Essential owners have a 50% rate of unlocking the bootloader. That means they have sold 10K instead of 5K. Still a major fail considering how much hype there was for it pre-launch.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Digital 'Tat'

    It's why Amazon makes Alexas and Fire devices, and why Google pours so much effort into digital tat nobody wants.

    And spend shed loads of money advertising that tat.

    I guess it won't be long before another plan emerges to get at least one always on spy in each room of every home around.

    Anyone giving me any of that 'tat' this crimble will get it back on their birthday.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Digital 'Tat'

      In response to the your quote from the article, anyone would think walled gardens turn out to be highly expensive for little return. If what they want to do is slurp data and advertise the shit out of us, the software should be able to run on any platform.

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    No accessories

    Where are the accessories? Even the new Moto seems to have figured out that you've got to HAVE the accessories if you say there are going to BE accessories.

    https://www.motorola.com/us/moto-mods

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: No accessories

      Yep, and Moto have stuck to their Mod system for at least two generations of phone, and several of them seem genuinely useful (a battery pack, a speaker for pottering around the house listening to podcast... and a physical Qwerty keyboard had been funded). It doesn't hurt that Moto have a range of compatible phones, some emphasising thin and light, some focused on durability, all with a near stock Android. Their Mod system uses Android's Greybus standard with a proprietary connector.

      I'm not sure of the merits of Essential's halfway house (physical connector for power only).

      I never saw Essential's modular system as standing a chance - consumers have seen too many modular systems either die by the wayside (LG G phone) or else cause lock in and frustration (Sony car stereos disabled AUX RCA sockets).

      1. Sampler

        Re: No accessories

        To be honest, I'm not sure the point of Motorola's, a battery - I have a USB pack that I can lend to my girlfriend who has a different phone (and manufacturer as she sips the Apple koolaid), or charge my action cam, or the next item, a speaker - similar to my jbl, that I can also hookup to my laptop at work and listen to the radio, or my tv at home when my housemates aren't asleep, that's loud enough I can chuck it in my pannier bag and still enjoy tunes on the cycle to work..

        There doesn't seem to be much benefit over these proprietary mods that generics don't meet and then surpass in they're not tied to a device or even platform.

        Even camera's have been done, though, Sony don't seem to be pursuing there's anymore, which is a shame, as I kinda fancy one to use for a week and then leave on a shelf to gather dust..

  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    I prefer the Gemini

    which I hope is going to confirm that there is space in the Android universe for niche products for discerning, as opposed to shiny-hunting, customers. An onboard-keyboard seems to me to make more sense for a lot of people than a video-conderence add-on.

    But what do I know?

    1. Piro Silver badge

      Re: I prefer the Gemini

      I've already pre-orderded two of the buggers, one for me, one for the wife...

      I'm no fan of large phones, but at least the Gemini makes damn fine use of the given space.

      Looking forward to it!

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: I prefer the Gemini

        There's also a snap on Moto Mod physical Qwerty keyboard in the works for Moto phones. My gut feeling is that it's better to have the keyboard removable, so a fault in the keyboard doesn't junk the phone (and vice versa). And whilst I might want a keyboard on my phone when travelling on a train, I might not want the bulk in my pocket if I'm just out for a few beers.

        Of course Moto phones don't dual boot GNU Linux like Gemini does.

        1. Piro Silver badge

          Re: I prefer the Gemini

          I've been keeping an eye on the Moto Mod project too, and the bulk of the Gemini is a concern. I'll see how it goes when the thing actually arrives.

          1. jmarked

            Re: I prefer the Gemini

            Hope this will give something new and interesting.

  5. ThomH

    Suggests that phones aren't as commoditised as we tend to believe? Or more commoditised?

    To me this looks like a decent-enough entry at its original price if I were looking at that end of the market, and a really good candidate after the price cuts. Yet it didn't sell. So maybe specific brands still matter?

    They're also available unlocked from Amazon but I doubt that the Sprint tie-up helps at all — that's also the network that helped to kill the Palm Pre — maybe it's more that consumers care so little about which phone they have that they'll take whatever the network offers them?

    1. Naselus

      Re: Suggests that phones aren't as commoditised as we tend to believe? Or more commoditised?

      "To me this looks like a decent-enough entry at its original price if I were looking at that end of the market, and a really good candidate after the price cuts."

      Really? You can pick up a Xaoimi or a OnePlus with those kind of specs at half the price. Which is probably why it didn't sell - anyone willing to abandon their usual brand for stats had much cheaper options with similar performance, and it was never really a match for the higher-end flagship models.

  6. Lysenko

    £100 more than a Samsung S8... ???

    ... and it isn't an iPhone? Of course it isn't selling. It needs to be RRPed at the psychological £499 price point and then promotion discounted from there if they want to get any traction.

    (Amazon UK prices)

    1. Danny 14

      Re: £100 more than a Samsung S8... ???

      even 499 is pushing it when there are similar featured phones for a third less. if you are a generation behind then you can get something with full term contract for 500.

  7. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Re: Google Play reports a mere 50,000 download of Essential's Camera app

    Puzzling statistic. Maybe it means that the camera is considered a non-essential element of the phone by its' users.

    Now if there was an app for making phone calls, and that had a low rate of downloads, then that would be a tad more compelling.

    1. CheesyTheClown

      Re: Google Play reports a mere 50,000 download of Essential's Camera app

      And out of curiosity, how many of those downloads were to telephones on display in stores?

    2. zapgadget
      Pint

      Re: Google Play reports a mere 50,000 download of Essential's Camera app

      Ah, you just gave away your age by thinking that smartphones are still used for phone calls.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Saw it coming, just didn't care.

    I've said it before & I'll say it again: no headphone jack, no SD card slot, no sale.

    The not-at-all Essential phone had none of those features so it gets none of my money.

    1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

      Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

      It's just like an iPhone but without iPhone support, so it's Essentially useless.

      Pro-tip: Cater to people who don't want an iPhone. Give it a headphone jack, give it a microSD slot, let it run 3rd party ROMs, and maybe even make the battery user-replaceable.

    2. CheesyTheClown

      Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

      I am using an iPhone 6s plus and have no intention of changing phones so long as there is no headphone jack. The headphone jack is a standard which allows me to use the same headphones on dozens of devices. And dongles don't work... at least not more than a few days before you have to buy a new one.

      As for SD card... I can't go there with you. It feels too much like saying you want a floppy drive on an internet connected device. 256GB on phones these days... Do you really need more?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        At CheesyTheClown, Re: SD cards.

        Where I live in The States, 64GiB is typical, 128GiB as a vastly more expensive luxury, & 256GiB effectively nonexistent.

        With that said, even if the device DOES include that much internal storeage it doesn't change the fact that some of us like to swap out our media selection (audio books, ebooks, movies, music, games, etc) via the simple act of ejecting an SD card & putting in a new batch of files. Having to synch the phone to some cloud, upload an entire multi GiB selection of files, on what may be a flaky signal & a carrier plan that charges by the byte? No thanks.

        I can "synch" a full SD card (where 256GiB capacity is far easier & cheaper to obtain) in a matter of seconds, free except for the one time cost of the card itself (no signal to worry about, no plan to pay for, no cloud provider to pay to ransome my files, etc) so there's really no comparison.

        And it's kind of amusing that you agree with me about the headphone jack but then call an SD card slot the equiv of a "floppy drive". Really? The headphone jack is tech that predates the cellphone entirely while the SD card is much newer, yet you object to the inclusion of the SD card? Pardon me a moment while I reenact that scene from Monty Python with the taunting Frenchmen atop the castle wall. Plbplbplbplblblblblblblbbbhahahahahha. =-)p

        Here's a final thought about the SD card to help you understand why someone might prefer its inclusion over merely getting a device with gobs of internal storeage built in. When (not if, WHEN) that device breaks & you can't even get it to turn on, where are all your files? You better hope you remembered to synch them to your cloud otherwise they're all gone. All your personal photos, movies, media files, *everything*. But if the device has an SD card slot & you've configured it to save all your stuff on it, the destruction of the phone doesn't necessarily mean the loss of all your files. There's a good chance you will be able to eject that card, stick it in another SD card slot equipped device, & recover all your stuff. You can configure the phone to make a local copy to the card AND synch to the cloud as an even more comprehensive means of data backup/recovery, but there are far more things that can go wrong to thwart the cloud synch versus the local copy, it only makes sense to include the SD card slot.

        Hope that helps. Enjoy a pint. =-)

        1. Danny 14

          Re: At CheesyTheClown, SD cards.

          in the uk the large capacity models are shockingly more expensive. a 64gb card at a few pounds doesnt equate to paying 100 more for the same extra 64gb phone.

          SD card is essential to me until a standard capacity is at least 128gb.

      2. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

        Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

        I see the microSD card as being able to carry just my phone where a laptop or a USB drive was once needed. About 100GB in my phone is offline OsmAnd+ maps and an offline Kiwix copy of Wikipedia. Traveling adds music, movies, documents, DSLR backups, and video camera backups. I've filled my 200GB card before so I've been thinking about a 400GB card for next year.

        256GB phones are rare and expensive. A better question is if you really need 256+ GB of expensive high performance flash, or could most of that be a bit slower and 1/5 the cost.

      3. Tim Seventh

        Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

        As for SD card... I can't go there with you. It feels too much like saying you want a floppy drive on an internet connected device. 256GB on phones these days... Do you really need more?

        This really isn't a question you should be asking since it seems you use iPhone only. So you've already compensated for it. But for android devices similar to a pc, the real argument is the difference between only one internal soldered storage vs an additional removable storage. If I use the floppy drive logic, it will be only one internal soldered floppy drive vs an additional removable floppy drive.

        A removable medium will always have these benefits.

        Case 1, flexibility in file transfer. Let's try transferring 256GB of files to your phone. Let's go with the cable, darn now you can't use your phone for 1-3hrs unless you wait near the pc. Let's try with the cloud, what? that's 3-7hrs of waiting near a wifi or I get a +$500 bill on my data bill. Oh wait, you have an sd card? Transfer your files to the sd card, then come back when it's ready. You gain the freedom to use your phone without waiting.

        Case 2, secondary backup. Oops you broke your phone after taking a long day worth of photos in the rural area with no data signal. Now you can't turn it on. At least you still have your last cloud data backup. Oh wait, you saved the photos on the sd card? Great, it'll still be in there. Just plug it in to your pc and all your photos will still be there.

        Case 3, the ability to upgrade. 256GB phone meet my quadruplet (4x) 256GB media collection sd cards. Wait, 512GB sd cards are finally out? Buy, insert, upgrade. You can never have too much space, only too little. (ok ok this one is extreme. not all phone support 512GB, but the users get to decide at least)

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

          You can use an SD card to easily swap data between devices. You can use it to back up phone and app data. However you shouldn't use an SD card to do both, unless you are aware of the pitfalls of doing so.

          Whilst I always hope there'll be a phone with SD card support for those who want one, they should acknowledge that most people don't need it - 32GB+ is a huge amount of music, and they don't need the faff.

          1. Duffy Moon

            Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

            "32GB+ is a huge amount of music"

            Maybe in mp3 format, but all my music is in FLAC - which is somewhat more space-hungry.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            At Dave126, RE: 32GiB.

            So I'm supposed to fit *TiB* of music into a 32GiB phone & expect that to suffice? A 32GiB SD card isn't enough to only take a single track from each artist/band in my collection, much less any reasonable portion of the collection itself. So while *you* may consider a 32GiB fixed-capacity device to be sufficient for your needs, please don't make the mistake of assuming it's acceptable for "everyone". There are far too many folks for whom such a meager capacity wouldn't even scratch the surface of their music library...

            And then there's other media files to add to the mix. All those movies take up a *lot* of space. How many BR movies will fit in a 32GiB space? How many 4K ones? I hope you can fit a decent selection of titles into that space because if you haven't got a signal then what's in that space is all you have to choose from to watch.

            Audio books tend to take up several hundred Meg per title, and if you've got a considerable library to choose from, 32GiB isn't really enough to store a decent selection - do you want to include the entire Game of Thrones series? That'll take the bulk of the space all by itself.

            You're a bit better off if you have ebooks, you can store a massive amount of those in a 32GiB space, but if they're stored as PDF then you can kiss that space very quickly goodbye.

            Photographs will *devour* that space in a hurry. The bigger/higher res the pictures the faster the space disappears.

            If you keep separate spaces for your apps, like one SD card for Personal & another for Work so never the two shall meet/infect, then the number of apps stored in such spaces will grow to fill said space. Everything invariably does.

            Once you combine all this stuff into a single space, the capacity needs of that space quickly make themselves felt. 32GiB may sound like a lot to start with, but you will watch in dismay as it rapidly goes away the more of your files you try & keep there. Even a device with 256GiB of capacity won't last forever with all the stuff we tend to accumulate (cue the George Carlin skit about "your stuff").

            BUT, if that phone has an SD card slot then you can ALWAYS give it more room simply by swapping in a new card. Old card full of music? New card = more stuff!

            As others pointed out, the cost of the 256GiB phone is *much* higher than an SD card of the same capacity. So if the phone has a SD slot then it can get away with less internal storeage, you won't spend nearly as much for the space difference worth of SD cards. (As in the price difference between a 32GiB phone & a 256GiB phone could be better spent on LOTS more capacity of SD cards instead.)

            See? I hope so. I need caffeine & a refill of my sanity - I'm running critically low on both.

            *Scampers off to go strangle a caffeine source*

          3. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

            @Duffy Moon and AC

            Can you not read or grasp the concept that your wants aren't everyone's? I was very clear that some people - like you - will always want lots of storage, and long may they be catered for. I was merely pointing out that most people don't need a month's worth of music on the hoof.

            I'm happy to be shown data that shows otherwise, but anecdotal evidence should never be used as a counterargument to a statement about 'most people'.

            If it's just FLAC music you need to store (and thus I'm assuming that the audio quality is important to you) then there are some very good dual SD card ESS DAC-based discrete audio players out there these days.

      4. JohnFen

        Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

        " It feels too much like saying you want a floppy drive on an internet connected device."

        No, it's like saying I want a hard drive. What does being internet-connected have to do with it?

        "Do you really need more?"

        "Need" is a strong term, but it's awfully nice not to have to carry a memory stick around when a phone could double in the role.

        Besides, the amount of storage isn't the issue. The main benefit of a card slot is that you can easily move large amounts of data from one device to another.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

      Your loss. The pixel 2 has neither of these and is the best phone on the market right now.

      If you really must rely on wires, an inline USBC converter is in the box, and who on earth needs more than 128gb of storage (dog slow , split storage at that) on a SD card. Trying to include everything you digitally on your phone is frankly insane, destined to fail, and suggests you don't understand how pinning works.

      1. 404

        Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

        'who on earth needs more than 128gb of storage'

        Where have we heard that before?

        <obvious>Holy shit! We have Bill Gates commenting on El Reg!</obvious>

      2. JohnFen

        Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

        "The pixel 2 has neither of these and is the best phone on the market right now."

        In your opinion. In mine, it's not in the top 5, maybe not even in the top 10.

  9. CheesyTheClown

    Essential is missing something essential

    A support infrastructure.

    If you break the screen... where will it be replaced?

    If you need support... which store will you visit?

  10. stefanreich

    In all fairness, it sounds like Andy learned something from leaving Google. I'll talk his unlocked devices over the locked ones of the mothership any day.

    https://www.essential.com/blog/why-I-started-essential

  11. howieb2001

    I'm in the UK but managed to get hold of one of these. I think the main problem was a marketing campaign that placed this in competition with premium phones at a premium price followed by delays and release before it was really ready. After a few weeks of updates it's fast with no software blips and a camera that is not bad at all although not in the league of the Pixel 2 and latest iphones. Really nice to use a well-made phone without a case as the ceramic seems to be almost unscratchable.

  12. Cuddles

    "new consumer electronics ecosystem"

    "Google... Sprint"

    Maybe I'm missing something, but a generic Android phone sold through an established carrier doesn't sound all that much like a new ecosystem to me.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: "new consumer electronics ecosystem"

      'Ecosystem' was a reference to Rubin's wildly optimistic idea that people will want to plug lots of stuff onto their phones using his sub-optimal solution.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You can get a cheaper and better Android phone from Xiaomi

    Only drawback is China phones' Android UX isn't as good as stock Android, but it has improved significantly over the years.

    Also, as a johnny-come-lately phone brand, 'Essential' isn't a very appealing name. Most consumers don't care if some co-founder of Android was behind it. You better have some other big selling point which is capable of peeling customers away from other more established brands.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    XDA beg to differ

    They've just awarded it runner up best value flagship phone of 2017.

  15. Snowy Silver badge
    Coat

    No other camera app available?

    [quote]Google Play reports a mere 50,000 download of Essential's Camera app so far, the Android Police blog notes. This doesn't paint the full picture, but it can be assumed a fairly complete one, barring a few brush strokes*.[/quote]

    An odd way to count sales, considering when you connect to the play store they knows what phone you are using!

    So rather than count some app downloads they could say how many of the phone had been to the play store instead?

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