With that number of units sold, it certainly does pale in comparison to the likes of the tens of millions of devices sold by Apple and Samsung, but like we said, Essential is a brand new company and the Essential Phone is its first device, so you can imagine that too many customers probably don’t want to spend money on something that’s unproven.
According to BayStreet, the 5,000 units is the sell-through which means that these are the units that consumers actually buy through a retailer, or in this case through Sprint which is the Essential Phone’s exclusive carrier in the US. So far reviews of the handset have been mixed, and while it’s hard to deny the smartphone’s beautiful design, the fact that it doesn’t really have that many standout features makes it hard to separate itself from the competition.
In any case the phone and company are still new to the market so perhaps give it some time and things could change, just like OnePlus who was a new player a few years ago, but are now making headlines with their Android smartphones.