Andy Rubin's Essential is shutting down

Essential, the company founded by one-time Android creator Andy Rubin, is now closing its doors for good. The firm had debuted the interesting Essential phone and had planned to create a wildly thin and tall device as a sequel to that. That's no longer happening.

From Essential's blog post announcing the move:

In October, we introduced Project GEM, a new mobile experience that our hardware, software and cloud teams have been building and testing for the past few years. Our vision was to invent a mobile computing paradigm that more seamlessly integrated with people's lifestyle needs. Despite our best efforts, we've now taken Gem as far as we can and regrettably have no clear path to deliver it to customers. Given this, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations and shutdown Essential.

The Essential phone was always an odd one. It held a lot of promise, but it never really caught on, that was its major failing. The phone was sold with a lot of potential that could only be actualized if it had mass appeal. As a result of that lack of mass appeal, the first Essential phone sent a majority of its lifespan being 99% done but never really complete. Things like the camera and software, table stakes for smartphone makers, were heavily criticized post-launch.

As flagship makers of mainstream smartphones (often backed by multi-billion dollar companies or whole nation-states) innovated and came out with more and more intriguing designs aimed at every price-point, Essential never really had a chance.

Essential Phone review: One (big) step away from the flagship competition