The future of Essential is mostly a mystery. Since releasing a single phone a year and a half ago that only sold after dramatic price drops, nothing has come to replace it or work alongside it in any sort of family of products. The company hasn’t delivered on modular accessories for that first phone, likely cancelled both a follow-up phone and its home hub, was rumored to be up for sale, has seen its founder in headlines for all the wrong reasons, and has cut a big chunk of its workforce. While we haven’t exactly written off Essential, a number of other writers (apparently) have. That has fired-up the company’s head of R&D.
In a Tweet over the weekend that should bring some hope to Essential fans, Essential’s Head of R&D, Jason Keats, said that “All these stories about Essential’s demise,” are feeding his “desire to rub their faces in it in the future.” He went ahead and suggested that “We aren’t done, not by a long shot.”
See, good news!
What’s Keats referring to, though? Again, we don’t know what Essential’s plans are, other than they are “now hard at work on [their] next mobile product,” according to a statement they sent to us last week. Is that next “mobile” product the silly-sounding AI phone that was reported on back in October? Probably. As long as it’s not anything like the new Palm phone, I’ll try to reserve judgement for now.
So, Essential fans, you’ve got something to look forward to. And to everyone writing Andy Rubin’s company off, well, should Essential do something notable, prepare for R&D trash talking, which I know will keep you up at night.