OnePlus co-founder Nothing’s startup Nothing has bought Essential, the failed company of the man known as the father of Android, Andy Rubin.
OnePlus co-founder buys Essential
The technological world still remembers the disaster of Essential, a niche brand that started its journey with a curious sales claim. It was the company created by Andy Rubin, one of those directly responsible for Android. The brand barely managed to have a presence at the international level and ended up disappearing. Now, Carl Pei has bought his brand.
According to an application at the UK Intellectual Property Office, Carl Pei’s new company, Nothing, has bought the Essential brand. Not so its assets; Recall that the company shut down after producing only one device, the Essential One.
Essential will live under Nothing brand
The purposes of Carl Pei’s company, Nothing, are still a mystery. However, the purchase of Andy Rubin’s firm could indicate that one of Nothing’s important focuses lies in smartphones.
Essential was a company dedicated to smartphones; Although it launched a single model that failed due to its disastrous launch, they were planning to launch at least two more models, plus a couple of home automation devices. In 2020, the company closed down for good.
It did so for several reasons, the first being that its products were a commercial disaster. The Essential One, its first phone, was not bad in terms of specifications, but it barely sold and its unique selling points were never particularly remarked. The problem came when it was revealed that Andy Rubin was involved in sexual harassment cases that Google allegedly covered up with millions of dollars. This was the beginning of the end. Now, the brand passes from Rubin’s hands to Epi,
What products will we see?
So, this gives us to understand that Nothing is interested in creating either home automation devices or smartphones. The problem is that Essential was quite a failure; So much so that after its closure, several of its former employees founded a company of their own, OSOM Products, focused on creating their first Android device.
It is not known what Carl Pei’s plans are. Nothing is still a mystery to users, as there is hardly any information on Pei’s social networks. At the moment the only thing that is known is that it will be dedicated to consumer electronics and the founder explained to Wired that it would be related to audio although it would also focus on the connected home.
This last point would be the key because although Essential has gone down in history for its failure with mobile devices, it was also working on Essential Home, a controller for the home with the intelligent assistant that finally did not come to market.
