How Andy Rubin’s Essential Aims to Change the Mobile Device Market

With his latest start up, Essential, Andy Rubin is trying to change the mobile hardware industry in the same way sent the mobile industry in a new direction with the Android mobile operating system. Essential has already introduced a new smartphone, called the Essential Phone, as well as a smart home device called Essential Home. But Essential is about more than hardware. Essential wants to support open ecosystems and doesn’t believe that premium devices should only be for people with big bank accounts. This slide show will look at how Essential is trying to change how new devices are developed and marketed.

To understand Essential is to understand Andy Rubin, the company’s founder. Rubin is the creator of Android and served as the head of Google’s Android division for years. He later helped Google build its robotics division before heading out on his own. Rubin has long been committed to user-friendly products and services and has been a proponent of reasonable product pricing. He’s hoping to bring all of that to Essential.

Essential has published a manifesto of sorts of the things the company believes all products should and should not include. In blog post on its site, the company asserts that it’s committed to eliminating bloatware and not forcing users to “have anything on them [users] don’t want to have.” That means Essential devices should be free from unwanted junk users aren’t able to remove from their devices.

Unlike Apple, which has made its fortune on a closed ecosystem that requires users to play by its rules, Essential has committed to an open ecosystem. Essential says the move will ensure its devices “play well” with the hardware and services its customers prefer to use.

Essential has said that it wants to build “premium” devices with high-end materials and “true craftsmanship.” However, the company is also committed to providing those products at an affordable price. It’s the company’s broader objective deliver high-end products to those who are on a budget.

Rubin is especially critical of so-called planned obsolescence, or the idea that hardware should have a shelf-life so customers keep picking up new products every year. Instead, Essential says it wants to create products that can “evolve” over time and still prove useful long into the future. It hasn’t said, however, how it plans to do that.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the Father of Android is committed to using the operating system in his company’s mobile hardware. The Essential Phone will come with a stock version of Android Nougat, and at least for now, it appears all future iterations will also support Google’s mobile operating system.

Essential’s smart home device Essential Home runs an operating system called Ambient OS. The operating system is Essential’s own and is designed to make it easier for users to control the smart home. Ambient OS can communicate with smart home devices, of course, but it also learns about user behaviors and can provide relevant information to them as they move throughout the home. Essential has said Ambient OS is an improved take on smart home control by analyzing user behavior.

The Essential Phone, which the company plans to deliver this summer, has a 5.7-inch touchscreen that nearly entirely covers its face. The device also runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and has a dual camera. It’ll cost $699 unlocked.

Essential Home, the company’s smart home hub, is smaller than the Amazon Echo and similar products, Like other smart home units, it allows users to control components like thermostats and lights, and can also handle calendar management. Essential hasn’t yet said how much Home will cost and when it’ll be released.

Looking ahead, Essential wants to create a hardware company that capable of delivering quality products across an array of market segments. While the company hasn’t said what specific types of products it intends to produce, Essential says it’s committed to bringing its new vision of hardware engineering to all of its products.