Essential Products reportedly cut one-third of its employees

In short: Essential has cut nearly a third of its employees, according to a new report by Bloomberg. The publication cites sources within Essential who asked not to be identified. Reducing nearly 30% of your workforce is not an easy task and probably means that Essential Products was running out of money. And that comes just a few months after Essential has confirmed that its second-generation smartphone has been canceled. Also comes after rumors that the company would go on sale and would look for a buyer. Although Essential did not confirm the number of employees laid off, a spokesperson wrote in an email: "It's a tough decision to make. We are sorry for the consequences for our colleagues who are leaving the company and are doing everything in their power to help them in their future careers. We are confident that our focus on our products will help us provide a truly revolutionary consumer product. "

Only a few weeks ago, Essential had indicated that he was working on a revolutionary new product. The company had not talked much about the device, but she said that it would be able to respond to SMS itself using artificial intelligence instead of a human message sent to those of their contacts . Of course, there will probably be a lot more artificial intelligence and machine learning, but that's the essence of what Essential talked about when he talked about publications earlier this month. . The device would also have a very small screen, because Essential wants users to interact primarily with the smartphone via voice commands. So, instead of browsing Facebook and Twitter all day, you'd rather tell your phone to post a tweet, call someone, and so on. That's why Essential has put all its resources in place right now, after canceling the PH-2. and his product assistant who would compete with Amazon Alexa.

Context: Essential Products is celebrating its third anniversary, having been founded on November 9, 2015. And at that time, it added only one product: a smartphone and some accessories for this smartphone, such as a pair USB-C keys. headphones and a 360-degree camera. Essential PH-1 was launched last summer and has attracted a lot of attention. It was actually the first smartphone to have peaked, and even today, it has the smallest notch of all smartphones. The notch was only used for the front camera, not the speaker grille, nor any other sensor, but only the camera. So it was very small. The rest of the phone was built in titanium, so that he felt really upscale in the hand. The biggest problem with the Essential PH-1 (pronounced "Phone") was the price. It was quite expensive, knowing that he only had 4 GB of RAM and that the cameras were not great. But when it fell to $ 499, it started selling like hotcakes. Essential also dramatically improved cameras with software updates, and was also one of the first to receive Android Pie in August. In fact, he received Android Pie before many Pixel phones.

But the question is why did Essential Products attract so much attention? There is one name that answers this question, that is Andy Rubin. Who is the co-founder of Android, many call him the godfather of Android. And when someone who has been involved in creating something like the Android OS is doing something new, it is catching the eye. In addition, Essential PH-1 did things that many other smartphones did not do at the time. Including the use of Titanium for construction, use of a notch, etc. It became clear that Rubin's name was not enough to sell the essential PH-1. And Essential also had a difficult year after the launch of PH-1. Rubin was in fact caught in charges of sexual misconduct – from his time at Google, after the search giant bought Android – and ended up missing from Essential. He came back in early 2018, but that probably dampened PH-1 sales and put the team on the development of his next smartphone. People are still interested in the work of Essential Products because they have Andy Rubin, who has significantly improved the PH-1 through updates. So many people were excited about the PH-2, which does not come now.

Impact: Licensing about a third of your workforce is not a small number. And while it's unfortunate for these employees because they will not have any jobs, it's probably a bigger problem for Essential. The company really needs something to earn money. Whether it's a PH-2 smartphone or this new artificial intelligence-inspired smartphone he's working on, he needs to generate revenue to keep running. According to Bloomberg, the majority of those fired belonged to the hardware and sales divisions. When you sell computer equipment, dismissing a good number of employees in the hardware division is certainly not a positive sign of what awaits you.

This does not mean that Essential Products is finished or does not work anymore, but it does mean that you have to find a way to make money fast. Rubin is the type of guy who is more interested in making products than by making money. And it's clear with Essential. He has announced many different products, all of which will change the game, but only one has been announced, the others being canceled or in progress. So, Essential Products probably needs somebody else to lead the show with Rubin, as CEO of the company. Rubin has great vision, but if he is not careful, Essential Products could become a remnant of the past.