Really disappointing to hear. I was super excited last year when Essential announced their foray into the smartphone hardware business -- always exciting to see

Really disappointing to hear. I was super excited last year when Essential announced their foray into the smartphone hardware business -- always exciting to see new entrants, especially one founded by Andy Rubin nonetheless. Also worth noting is that Essential phone (v1.0; 2017) was the first device to include a notch around the front camera -- a revolutionary feature and a head-turner at the time, with other big players following suite down the year. [0] I'd personally be pleased if Essential gets credit at least for making top centered notches on smartphone devices mainstream; would now be interesting to see how they approach their AOSP-based OS given the abrupt end to their 'hardware manufacturer' ambitions. As many others have already pointed out, Essential's (relative) failure shows how saturated and competitive smartphone hardware industry has become -- with barriers of entry being unimaginably high -- for even a multiple VC funded startup. [0] https://mashable.com/2017/05/30/essential-phone-android-andy-rubin/ https://mashable.com/2017/05/30/essential-phone-android-andy...