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I still believe there's room for another premium US smartphone besides Pixel, Apple. China has Xiaomi and Europe has totally lost the smartphone race. Open sour

I still believe there's room for another premium US smartphone besides Pixel, Apple. China has Xiaomi and Europe has totally lost the smartphone race. Open source software, hardware initiatives have also failed to attract attention (Ubuntu, Firefoxos, ..) Essential or anyone needs some innovative new features or 'feel' to it.

Kalium 8y ago
There's definitely room for a premium smartphone beyond Google and Apple! Samsung devices running Android seems to own that space pretty effectively.
- EpicEng 8y ago
  >room for a premium _US_ smartphone
  - Kalium 8y ago
    Samsung has a strong US market position, running mostly US-made software on hardware fabricated and assembled elsewhere. At this point Samsung's phones are about as American as Google's or Apple's.
    - EpicEng 8y ago
      Except for the fact that, you know, it's a Korean company... but sure.
      - pjmlp 8y ago
        How smartphones do Google and Apple actually produce in US?
        EpicEng 8y ago
        So, I think I was misunderstood here... I only piped up because the GP explicitly said "US" in relation to a failing US based company. Saying that Samsung fills that gap makes no sense, regardless of where the phones are manufactured.
        Kalium 8y ago
        In one sense, you're absolutely right. It's a Korean-owned company and therefore obviously in no way American. In another sense, the ownership of Samsung is irrelevant. The actual phones have roughly the same level of US-origin content and US-local labor as those phones famously labeled "Designed by Apple in California".
    - Latteland 8y ago
      The OS on ph1 is ideal. I want zero crapware, and security updates, and for gods sake give me a headphone. That's going to be so rare it's going to be an actual competitive advantage. But at least no crapware is a big advantage.
      - Kalium 8y ago
        I understand where you're coming from. Headphones are common! Let me use them, you assholes! And for love of fsck, no shitty vendor replacement for apps that are actually decent. With all that said, it might be worth considering that recent events at Essential suggest that this might not be the significant competitive edge that might be hoped for. It's abstractly possible that our tastes in phones might not be an accurate reflection of the wider market.
remir 8y ago
I don't think there's much room for another player. Not at this stage. Even Google with the Pixel is a drop in the ocean in terms of hardware sales. Truth is, Essential simply had no chance. The segment of users caring about build materials and craftsmanship is also the one who care about stuff like camera quality, software quality and features and when the PH-1 launched, its camera sucked, it had less features than other flagships and it was riddled with cellular reception issues. Price wasn't cheap either. If it wasn't for Andy Rubin, there's no way this startup would have received the investment they did.

Kalium 8y ago

There's definitely room for a premium smartphone beyond Google and Apple! Samsung devices running Android seems to own that space pretty effectively.

EpicEng 8y ago
>room for a premium _US_ smartphone
- Kalium 8y ago
  Samsung has a strong US market position, running mostly US-made software on hardware fabricated and assembled elsewhere. At this point Samsung's phones are about as American as Google's or Apple's.
  - EpicEng 8y ago
    Except for the fact that, you know, it's a Korean company... but sure.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      How smartphones do Google and Apple actually produce in US?
      - EpicEng 8y ago
        So, I think I was misunderstood here... I only piped up because the GP explicitly said "US" in relation to a failing US based company. Saying that Samsung fills that gap makes no sense, regardless of where the phones are manufactured.
        Kalium 8y ago
        In one sense, you're absolutely right. It's a Korean-owned company and therefore obviously in no way American. In another sense, the ownership of Samsung is irrelevant. The actual phones have roughly the same level of US-origin content and US-local labor as those phones famously labeled "Designed by Apple in California".
  - Latteland 8y ago
    The OS on ph1 is ideal. I want zero crapware, and security updates, and for gods sake give me a headphone. That's going to be so rare it's going to be an actual competitive advantage. But at least no crapware is a big advantage.
    - Kalium 8y ago
      I understand where you're coming from. Headphones are common! Let me use them, you assholes! And for love of fsck, no shitty vendor replacement for apps that are actually decent. With all that said, it might be worth considering that recent events at Essential suggest that this might not be the significant competitive edge that might be hoped for. It's abstractly possible that our tastes in phones might not be an accurate reflection of the wider market.

remir 8y ago

I don't think there's much room for another player. Not at this stage. Even Google with the Pixel is a drop in the ocean in terms of hardware sales. Truth is, Essential simply had no chance. The segment of users caring about build materials and craftsmanship is also the one who care about stuff like camera quality, software quality and features and when the PH-1 launched, its camera sucked, it had less features than other flagships and it was riddled with cellular reception issues. Price wasn't cheap either. If it wasn't for Andy Rubin, there's no way this startup would have received the investment they did.