Many had a lot of hopes for the Essential Phone. This is because Essential was founded by Andy Rubin who helped create Android, so who better to create an Android phone than one of the creators of Android, right? Unfortunately the device wasn’t the smashing success many had hoped for, and now it looks like things are looking a tad bleak for the company.A report from Bloomberg has confirmed that Essential has laid off about 30% of its workforce. An Essential spokeswoman has verified this in a statement that reads, “This has been a difficult decision to make. We are very sorry for the impact on our colleagues who are leaving the company and are doing everything we can to help them with their future careers. We are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us deliver a truly game changing consumer product.”
It is unclear what this will mean for the company moving forward, but based on the statement it seems that the company still has plans for future products. Earlier this year there was a report in which it claimed that the Essential Phone 2 was cancelled and that the company could be thinking of selling themselves off.
Rubin had responded to the reports back then by saying that the company had multiple products in the works, and that by cancelling the Essential Phone 2 it does not mean that they are done. In any case it remains to be seen what products the company might come up with in the future.
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