When the Essential Phone was announced, many were expecting great things from it. This is because as a new company, Essential was not constrained by expectations that companies like Apple or Samsung face when launching a new smartphone. The company was also helmed by Android’s Andy Rubin, who before that was behind Danger Inc., the company behind the Sidekick mobile phone.
Unfortunately it seems that the Essential Phone has not been doing too well, with reports that in the US, around 5,000 handsets were sold. Now we have seen Essential try to tempt customers by slashing the price of the phone, dropping it down from $700 to $500, and even giving existing customers $200 in credit to make up for it. However it looks like slashing it by $200 did not help as the phone’s price has now been shaved further down to $450.
Note that this price cut isn’t official and we’re not sure if it is permanent, but it looks like it is being offered at $450 at both Best Buy and Amazon (Pure White model only). Whether or not this further price cut will tempt customers remains to be seen, but discounting a phone so heavily less than a year since its release certainly doesn’t sound like good news.
Of course this is hardly the end for Essential, but hopefully future devices released by the company will see them address the mistakes that they made with their first handset.
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