Essential phone startup ceasing operations, company shutting down

Here is another not so good news for today: Essential is shutting down. We’ve seen this one coming even if Rubin has been saying otherwise. In January last year, Essential assured the public the company is not dead. A number of things could still be done then but a year later, it seems nothing else can be delivered to the customers. Essential also announced that the Project GEM it’s been working on is about to end. There is no new plan to bring the new mobile experience to the consumers.

Essential said operations will cease and the company is shutting down. This important update is directed not only to the consumers but also to other global partners and employees in Bangalore, India and Palo Alto, California.

It’s not really clear why Essential isn’t delivering Project GEM to the customers when it’s been saying the project is doing okay. The public post still sounded positive, praising the simplicity of Gem complete with videos. Essential is also thankful to the CloudMagic team for helping the company.

There is no stopping Essential from closing down now. It also announced that the PH-1’s security update released last February 3 is the last. The device will still work but no customer support or updates will be provided.

Newton Mail users can still access the service until April 30, 2020 only. The vendor image to hack into PH-1 will be moved to github.

It’s been only a little over four years since Essential Products was started by the Father of Android himself, Andy Rubin. There was a huge anticipation over the Essential Phone because people believed in the ability of Rubin. Unfortunately, some good things are never meant to last.