Essential has laid off 30% of its staff

Andy Rubin is known around the world as the founder of Android, which Google has acquired and has become the most popular computing platform on the planet. After leaving Google, Rubin founded Essential to make Android phones and smart home devices. However, the Essential phone has not had much impact and rumors say that Essential could already have a foot in the grave. Essential has just confirmed that nearly a third of its staff has been laid off.

Essential launched its first phone over a year ago for $ 700. Essential Phone was one of the first phones to feature a notch at the top, a feature popularized a few weeks later by the iPhone X. It also included a modular accessory connector , but Essential has yet released only one supplement: the 4K 360-degree camera. Essential promised more accessories like a dock and a headphone adapter, but none materialized.

Missing props would be quite disturbing, but reports earlier this year claimed that Essential had abandoned his second phone and that Rubin was considering selling the company. Without a new phone, employees will probably not have much to do. Thus, the new round of layoffs might not be a surprise in this context.

The Essential Phone was one of the first to feature a display notch. This feature became common a year later.

The Essential website currently has approximately 120 employees. Therefore, a 30% reduction would mean 36 fewer employees and about 84 people. Most of the reported reductions come from the hardware, marketing and sales divisions. That still leaves engineers able to continue to update Essential Phone, which was one of the first devices in the world to get an update for Android 9 Pie earlier this year. Although Essential may not have the necessary staff to build a fully voice-activated phone, as was said a few weeks ago.

The bulk of the phone was a competitive device when it was launched last year with higher-level specifications and a sleek titanium / ceramic chassis. However, the asking price of $ 700 was too high for a newcomer, still struggling with software bugs and poor performance of the camera. The Essential Phone is still on sale for $ 499 with a USB 360 Type Cam headset and shipping. It runs the latest version of Android, but support could stop abruptly if Essential stops.

Now read: The exclusive carrier of the essential phone will be the Sprint, Essential admits that the essential phone has a bad camera and Andy Rubin, founder of Android, reveals a superb "essential phone".