The Essential Phone is sold out on the official Essential website and in most retail outlets, with no more restocks planned for the polarizing device.
The smartphone, also named the Essential PH-1, was hyped up before its release last year because Andy Rubin, the founder of Essential, is also the creator of the Android mobile operating system. The Essential Phone was priced at $700 upon launch, entering a field populated by Apple’s iPhone X, Google’s Pixel 2 XL, and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8. The price tag was later reduced to $500, which made the Essential Phone more appealing to customers.
The Essential Phone went out of stock over the holiday season, partly due to significant price cuts that indicated retailers were cleaning out the device’s inventory. It appears that this marks the end of the device, so, unfortunately, customers who were planning to buy the Essential PH-1 after the holidays will likely find it very hard to do so.
“We are sold out of Essential Phone on essential.com and won’t be adding any new inventory. We are now hard at work on our next mobile product and will continue to sell accessories and provide speedy software updates and customer support to our existing community,” said a spokesman for the company.
Current Essential Phone users will be happy to know that despite the phone’s discontinuation, Essential reiterated that updates for it will continue. Essential previously promised that the Essential PH-1 will be upgraded at least to Android Q.
Another positive note from the spokesman’s statement is the confirmation that Essential is working on its next product. It was previously reported that the device will be an artificial intelligence-powered smartphone that performs tasks by mimicking its user, such as automatically replying to messages.
The new smartphone is said to have a unique design, with a small screen because users will interact with it mostly through voice commands. It will certainly be a different device compared to the competition, and there are rumors that Essential will be ready to show off the smartphone at CES 2019 in January.
Essential is able to roll out major Android updates for the Essential Phone faster than other non-Google Android smartphone manufacturers, and it is expected that the company will do the same for the rumored new smartphone.
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