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This is sad but forseeable as Essential sold poorly. It was a nice phone but it can be hard to establish a new brand right now and differentiate oneself. The

This is sad but forseeable as Essential sold poorly. It was a nice phone but it can be hard to establish a new brand right now and differentiate oneself. The only new brand of smartphone in the last four years I can think of is OnePlus that has had success. OnePlus did this by buying their popularity. By offering a ton of value initially and then raising the price each generation.

marrone12 8y ago
Their ads were terrible. They talked so much about their lack of bezel but the shots of the phone would display apps or pictures with black bars so you couldn't even tell the screen was nice.
kinsomo 8y ago
> The only new brand of smartphone in the last four years I can think of is OnePlus that has had success. OnePlus did this by buying their popularity. By offering a ton of value initially and then raising the price each generation. Aren't they a major Chinese brand? Seems like the message here is that you'd better already be big with deep pockets to wade into the smartphone market.
- xd1936 8y ago
  They're propped up by Oppo, but neither company will acknowledge it. Having weight like that behind you is definitely a competitive advantage when trying to enter this market as a new brand.
hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
I'm actually really hoping that Light Phone 2 takes off. Seems that they're making a very smart move to specifically contrast themselves to the addictive functionality sets of other smartphones, and Light Phone 2 seems to be in a good sweet spot.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
jMyles 8y ago
I'm not sure how typical I am in this regard, but I was 100% prepared to buy an essential until I found out that it didn't have 3.5mm audio.
- bronson 8y ago
  I was 100% prepared to buy an essential until I saw photos from its camera. What a disappointment.
  - mcny 8y ago
    As a Nexus owner (4, 5, 6, 7), I am 100% willing to compromise in camera quality. However, something has to give. If this phone debuted at $299 or even $349, I suspect we'd be seeing very different results. It is a shame too because I think the Amazon Fire phone failed for the very same reason. In hindsight, the ridiculous invite system that one plus had makes sense now. Maybe they were trying to limit the number of phones sold because each one sold at razor thin profits (possibly at a loss after warranty support).
- realworldview 8y ago
  I was 100% prepared to buy an Essential until i found out it was just another mobile phone.
  - realworldview 8y ago
    Downvoted for stating the obvious? $100 bazillion needs to be put in perspective.
    - realworldview 8y ago
      Damn you, humourless down-voting Philistines.
      - khedoros1 8y ago
        The Philistines thing worked with the David+Goliath comment tree...not as much here.
aphextron 8y ago
>This is sad but forseeable as Essential sold poorly. It was a nice phone but it can be hard to establish a new brand right now and differentiate oneself. I don't think it is, everyone is just too afraid of doing something radically different. Essential phone was just another generic midrange Android phablet at a top end flagship price. Until someone completely throws that paradigm away we will be stuck with the bloated nonsense that smartphones have become. I would give ANYTHING for a 5" phone with capacitive touch e-ink display, 3000mAh battery, and a barebones BSD based OS that did nothing but call, text, take pictures, gps, and text-based web browsing.
- FractalLP 8y ago
  Glad to know others exist that just want a basic device that will last a week without charging without massive bloat and apps I don't care about.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    You can get one for <$30, they're called featurephones. The rebooted Nokia 3310 claims one month of (stand by) battery life.
    - FractalLP 8y ago
      Aggh, sorry...I meant to be agreeing more with the parent comment I replied to. I want all that plus an e-ink screen running freeBSD and some very basic browsing. I don't think old Nokia dumb phones had that.
  - IncRnd 8y ago
    Just buy a dumb phone. It does exactly what you described.
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    Feature Phones are still a thing. You can still get such a thing. https://www.verizonwireless.com/basic-phones/ https://www.verizonwireless.com/basic-phones/ There's a whole bunch of phones that do basically what you're looking for.
celticninja 8y ago
I bought the OnePlus One when it was released and it was and still is a great phone, however their price point now places their newer offerings with the Samsung S series and Nexus/Pixel devices. It doesn't have enough going for it to warrant paying those prices. If anything it taught me that phone brands I hadn't heard of could compete with the top line ranges. After my OnePlus I tried a bunch of Chinese brands and found Xiaomi to have the best combination of features and price in the market, plus due to their ubiquity they also get plenty of custom ROM options.
kinkora 8y ago
While OnePlus (i've owned all OnePlus phones since OP1) is a great example however there is a common misconception that it was "new" at that time. The OnePlus 1 was almost identical to the Oppo Find 7A in specs, price, etc [1]. Also not commonly known, OnePlus was started by an ex-Oppo executive and is actually (majority) owned by Oppo Electronics which is the parent company of Oppo Mobile [2]. Also while price was definitely a huge factor for it's popularity, the main reason IMHO was because it was the first phone that officially supported a popular AOSP at that time - CyanogenMod (now LineageOS [3]) and it even had the logo branded on the back. Almost everyone I knew with a OP1 phone bought it simply for cyanogenmod and how fast/smooth it ran it with no issues. Remember that when OnePlus 1 was first announced in 2014, android phones were well known to be filled with vendor bloatware (Samsung Galaxy S3,S4 anyone?), expensive, became really slow over time and for those of us that wanted custom ROMs, it was relatively painful to flash/root a stable AOSP on any device. OnePlus 1 was the first phone that I had absolutely no issues with having CyanogenMod on it such that I even turned on nightly updates knowing full well that it was tested at least on a OnePlus device. So yea, I think OnePlus became popular simply because of price and their official support for CyanogenMod which meant a phone with a fast & responsive running android and most importantly, no bloatware. [1] https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=6214&idPhone2=6327 https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=6214&idPhone2... [2] https://www.gizchina.com/2014/04/28/oneplus-responds-oppo-controversy/ https://www.gizchina.com/2014/04/28/oneplus-responds-oppo-co... [3] https://www.androidauthority.com/cyanogenmod-lineageos-654810/ https://www.androidauthority.com/cyanogenmod-lineageos-65481...
- zifnab06 8y ago
  It sold moderately well and had fantastic software (up until it was ruined by management decisions...)
- distances 8y ago
  > Also while price was definitely a huge factor for it's popularity, the main reason IMHO was because it was the first phone that officially supported a popular AOSP at that time - CyanogenMod (now LineageOS [3]) and it even had the logo branded on the back. Maybe for the tinkering crowd, but I think you vastly overestimate it's importance in becoming a sales hit. I don't have the numbers for how many people flash their phones, but I'd guess less than one in a thousand. They do advance the sales via favorable reviews and recommendations though, I'm sure. As far as I see, it was simply just the price-quality ratio that made it a success.

marrone12 8y ago

Their ads were terrible. They talked so much about their lack of bezel but the shots of the phone would display apps or pictures with black bars so you couldn't even tell the screen was nice.

kinsomo 8y ago

> The only new brand of smartphone in the last four years I can think of is OnePlus that has had success. OnePlus did this by buying their popularity. By offering a ton of value initially and then raising the price each generation. Aren't they a major Chinese brand? Seems like the message here is that you'd better already be big with deep pockets to wade into the smartphone market.

xd1936 8y ago
They're propped up by Oppo, but neither company will acknowledge it. Having weight like that behind you is definitely a competitive advantage when trying to enter this market as a new brand.

hn_throwaway_99 8y ago

I'm actually really hoping that Light Phone 2 takes off. Seems that they're making a very smart move to specifically contrast themselves to the addictive functionality sets of other smartphones, and Light Phone 2 seems to be in a good sweet spot.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

jMyles 8y ago

I'm not sure how typical I am in this regard, but I was 100% prepared to buy an essential until I found out that it didn't have 3.5mm audio.

bronson 8y ago
I was 100% prepared to buy an essential until I saw photos from its camera. What a disappointment.
- mcny 8y ago
  As a Nexus owner (4, 5, 6, 7), I am 100% willing to compromise in camera quality. However, something has to give. If this phone debuted at $299 or even $349, I suspect we'd be seeing very different results. It is a shame too because I think the Amazon Fire phone failed for the very same reason. In hindsight, the ridiculous invite system that one plus had makes sense now. Maybe they were trying to limit the number of phones sold because each one sold at razor thin profits (possibly at a loss after warranty support).
realworldview 8y ago
I was 100% prepared to buy an Essential until i found out it was just another mobile phone.
- realworldview 8y ago
  Downvoted for stating the obvious? $100 bazillion needs to be put in perspective.
  - realworldview 8y ago
    Damn you, humourless down-voting Philistines.
    - khedoros1 8y ago
      The Philistines thing worked with the David+Goliath comment tree...not as much here.

aphextron 8y ago

>This is sad but forseeable as Essential sold poorly. It was a nice phone but it can be hard to establish a new brand right now and differentiate oneself. I don't think it is, everyone is just too afraid of doing something radically different. Essential phone was just another generic midrange Android phablet at a top end flagship price. Until someone completely throws that paradigm away we will be stuck with the bloated nonsense that smartphones have become. I would give ANYTHING for a 5" phone with capacitive touch e-ink display, 3000mAh battery, and a barebones BSD based OS that did nothing but call, text, take pictures, gps, and text-based web browsing.

FractalLP 8y ago
Glad to know others exist that just want a basic device that will last a week without charging without massive bloat and apps I don't care about.
- icebraining 8y ago
  You can get one for <$30, they're called featurephones. The rebooted Nokia 3310 claims one month of (stand by) battery life.
  - FractalLP 8y ago
    Aggh, sorry...I meant to be agreeing more with the parent comment I replied to. I want all that plus an e-ink screen running freeBSD and some very basic browsing. I don't think old Nokia dumb phones had that.
- IncRnd 8y ago
  Just buy a dumb phone. It does exactly what you described.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  Feature Phones are still a thing. You can still get such a thing. https://www.verizonwireless.com/basic-phones/ https://www.verizonwireless.com/basic-phones/ There's a whole bunch of phones that do basically what you're looking for.

celticninja 8y ago

I bought the OnePlus One when it was released and it was and still is a great phone, however their price point now places their newer offerings with the Samsung S series and Nexus/Pixel devices. It doesn't have enough going for it to warrant paying those prices. If anything it taught me that phone brands I hadn't heard of could compete with the top line ranges. After my OnePlus I tried a bunch of Chinese brands and found Xiaomi to have the best combination of features and price in the market, plus due to their ubiquity they also get plenty of custom ROM options.

kinkora 8y ago

While OnePlus (i've owned all OnePlus phones since OP1) is a great example however there is a common misconception that it was "new" at that time. The OnePlus 1 was almost identical to the Oppo Find 7A in specs, price, etc [1]. Also not commonly known, OnePlus was started by an ex-Oppo executive and is actually (majority) owned by Oppo Electronics which is the parent company of Oppo Mobile [2]. Also while price was definitely a huge factor for it's popularity, the main reason IMHO was because it was the first phone that officially supported a popular AOSP at that time - CyanogenMod (now LineageOS [3]) and it even had the logo branded on the back. Almost everyone I knew with a OP1 phone bought it simply for cyanogenmod and how fast/smooth it ran it with no issues. Remember that when OnePlus 1 was first announced in 2014, android phones were well known to be filled with vendor bloatware (Samsung Galaxy S3,S4 anyone?), expensive, became really slow over time and for those of us that wanted custom ROMs, it was relatively painful to flash/root a stable AOSP on any device. OnePlus 1 was the first phone that I had absolutely no issues with having CyanogenMod on it such that I even turned on nightly updates knowing full well that it was tested at least on a OnePlus device. So yea, I think OnePlus became popular simply because of price and their official support for CyanogenMod which meant a phone with a fast & responsive running android and most importantly, no bloatware. [1] https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=6214&idPhone2=6327 https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=6214&idPhone2... [2] https://www.gizchina.com/2014/04/28/oneplus-responds-oppo-controversy/ https://www.gizchina.com/2014/04/28/oneplus-responds-oppo-co... [3] https://www.androidauthority.com/cyanogenmod-lineageos-654810/ https://www.androidauthority.com/cyanogenmod-lineageos-65481...

zifnab06 8y ago
It sold moderately well and had fantastic software (up until it was ruined by management decisions...)
distances 8y ago
> Also while price was definitely a huge factor for it's popularity, the main reason IMHO was because it was the first phone that officially supported a popular AOSP at that time - CyanogenMod (now LineageOS [3]) and it even had the logo branded on the back. Maybe for the tinkering crowd, but I think you vastly overestimate it's importance in becoming a sales hit. I don't have the numbers for how many people flash their phones, but I'd guess less than one in a thousand. They do advance the sales via favorable reviews and recommendations though, I'm sure. As far as I see, it was simply just the price-quality ratio that made it a success.