Essential Phone Orphaned: Android Creator Company Closes Doors

Andy Rubin was responsible for the creation of Android, the most used operating system in smartphones. After leaving Google, he formed Essential, a smartphone manufacturer that launched only one model on the market and with several associated problems such as the sharing of personal data, having deserved an apology.

The company was working on new equipment, a conceptual smartphone that placed artificial intelligence at the center, managed by voice commands, which had been called Project Gem. More than an equipment, Essential referred to this as a new experience that integrated hardware, software and cloud, changing some paradigms of the users' needs.

The project ended, in a negative scenario where the company says that despite their best efforts, they managed to take the Gem as far as they could, but there is no clear way to deliver it to their customers. And so they decided to shut down the company.

The first smartphone failed to sell enough units for the company to stay afloat, and even this ambitious second venture seemed to be the final card for the company's survival. Andy Rubin had managed to raise 330 million in two financing rounds, resulting in the 2018 acquisition of CloudMagic, a vital aid in the project.

With the closure of the company, Essential Phone will no longer receive technical support as of May 1.