5 ms·
Sprint to be exclusive carrier of Essential phone
- DiNovi 9y agothinks about his old palm pre cries
- skinnymuch 9y agoWhy do you have to bring up webOS? What a beaut. If HP didn't shut the app store down or I had backups of most apps, I'd switch to my Pre 2/3 right now for a week or two. God I miss it!
- mrtron 9y agoWhat was so good about webOS?
- erikpukinskis 9y agoMathias Duarte, and a hackable system UI due to pervasive use of web technologies.
- bsharitt 9y agoI loved the OS(even if it did still feel beta quality at times), but that original Pre hardware was just terrible. It felt so fragile and that jelly keyboard was awful.
- jitl 9y ago:-/
- covercash 9y agoSo Essentially, they're guaranteeing that this phone is DOA.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- eof 9y agoWell that's a mistake I think. Sprint network is terrible in comparison to ATT & Verizon. Shouldn't this thing be unlocked and not tied to any carrier as a matter of principal?
- nathanasmith 9y agoThis whole idea of "exclusive carrier" just wears me out. My first smartphone was an HTC Dream with T-Mobile, then a Moto Droid with Verizon, then a CDMA Galaxy Nexus again with Verizon. I finally got sick of it and bought a Motorola X Pure last Christmas. It's so-called "universal" so it works on whatever carrier I want. Right now I'm using it on Cricket pre-paid and if they do something janky I'll just pick up and go somewhere else. No more of that carrier exclusive crap and no more contracts. Regarding the Essential phone, even for people that don't mind being locked to a major carrier, they chose Sprint? I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure they have the least favorable reputation of the 4 major carriers. Hitching your wagon to that seems like a bad idea. I'm all for more competition though so I hope Rubin knows what he's doing.
- brightball 9y agoIt makes sense from a marketing standpoint, IMO. If the phone is as good as it's supposed to be, they've given Sprint a reason to promote it for them. Sprint gets an angle to look forward thinking/innovative and probably pick up some new customers. Sprint already heavily advertises and now this phone will be featured as part of that advertising. Sprint needs ways to differentiate itself in the marketplace and this could be a solid way to do it. For Essential, it's a way to create demand an a bit of an exclusivity feel and get a truckload of free advertising on the back of a giant. Essential isn't Apple or Google. They won't have the out of the gate manufacturing or marketing channels available that either of those two giants have so this will also provide a means of somewhat controlling demand. For people using Sprint, they get to feel a little smug if they whip this phone out and it IS awesome. If it's as good as it could be, you create a means of having that drool-inducing effect that makes people seriously consider switching to get one. I'll go ahead and tell you...I want one. I think it looks like a great design, but I'm on an iPhone right now along with my entire family. The parental control features basically lock me into an iPhone until the kids get older. It's a small network effect....but whether essential was on AT&T, Verizon or Sprint...I still couldn't get one because I'm stuck on Apple and not AT&T.
- maxsilver 9y ago> For people using Sprint, they get to feel a little smug if they whip this phone out and it IS awesome Except it's Sprint, so many people will whip out their phone and have no functional data service. (Yes, even in 2017). There are lots of really good reasons why Sprint has the worst reputation of all major carriers. And people don't always pick up on the distinction -- a broken network makes a great phone look like a broken phone. I think Essential is letting their business/personal ties to SoftBank cloud their decisions on what's best for their users and what's best for Essential as a product.
- homero 9y agoGood luck
- ulfw 9y agoYea good luck. The least desired carrier in the US. That'll work well.
- mikeash 9y ago"You’ll be able to get the device unlocked on Essential’s website for $699" So, which is it? Is it exclusive to Sprint, or available unlocked?
- flexiflex 9y agoBOO
- flexiflex 9y agoInnovative new phone. Archaic anti-consumer contracts.
- flexiflex 9y agoInnovative new phone. Archaic anti-consumer contracts.
- helper 9y agoYou can still buy the phone unlocked direct from essential. This is "exclusive" to sprint in that sprint will be the only carrier to have this phone in their stores. The supported bands are: -UMTS/HSPA+: 1, 2, 4, 5 6, 8 -GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz -CDMA EV-DO Rev. A: 0, 1, 10 -FDD-LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 66 -TDD-LTE: 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 -TD-SCDMA: 34, 39
- Tasboo 9y agoI think the Pixel had a similar "exclusivity" with Verizon when it launched.
- Shivetya 9y agoI have missed the boat here, what makes this phone special? Why would I choose this over existing Android or Apple phones? At the price point it would need to have some serious compelling features. Oddly this is the first time I have heard of this phone.
- ponyous 9y agoIt was announced not that long ago. For all I know you need dongle for almost everything(if not everything). Android founder is somehow involved and I assume this is why most of HN folks like it (the ones that do)
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y agoIt has a weird magnetic accessory connector on it. And it's made of Titanium! And a weird camera cutout in the screen so it doesn't have a top bezel! It still has a bottom bezel for no reason. Could have moved the screen to the bottom and not needed a camera cutout. And Andy Rubin started the company that makes it! And it's not waterproof. Titanium! And no SD card slot. But Andy Rubin! No headphone jack, you can buy an MP3 player for that, right??? But Titanium! Did I mention you get all that for the low low price of $700? With Essential Products, this lack of essential features can be yours today! TL;DR: It's a piece of shit IMO. My personal list of essential features for a phone: IPx8 rating, preferably 68. SD card slot. Headphone jack. NFC. I'd prefer it if the manufacturer updated the OS in a timely fashion, but I can live with Lineage and other ROMs.
- platz 9y agos/carrier/marketing rights
- MBCook 9y agoThat worked so well for the Palm Pre.
- theprop 9y agoOuch!
- Urgo 9y ago“We like to bet with where we think the market is going as opposed to where the market was” Translation "Sprint was the only carrier that was in a place to take a bet on us and promote and pay us what we were asking for, or even allow us to put our phone in their stores and have access to the brick and mortar market"
- joelrunyon 9y agoSo is there a discount or something with Sprint? Was really interested, but 1) I'm not switching to sprint and 2) Who buys phones in stores?