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The Essential Phone has had a turbulent past couple of weeks. After a delayed launch and losing a few high profile execs, the company is finally getting their ducks in order. They’ve successfully managed to secure more than $300 million in funding — something that was rumored back in June — but has only officially been confirmed with investors like Tencent, and Amazon’s Alexa Fund all throwing their money into the ring.
Essential Phone’s launch timeline so far:
- Essential Phone will begin shipping in June
- Essential Phone will be released “in a few weeks”
- Essential Phone is getting close to shipping
With that, the Essential President Niccolo De Masi says the PH-1 finally has a new launch date. He isn’t telling us what that is quite yet, only mentioning that they’ll have an official date ready sometime next week. As a reminder, the Sprint will be the Essential Phone’s exclusive carrier partner here in the US, although an unlocked model can be purchase through Essential’s website and even Best Buy or Amazon for those willing to shell out $700+ to a new startup with zero reputation. It’s been done before…
Even then it seems at this rate the Essential Phone could be old news by the time it launches. Essential is banking on their accessories and attachments — which, don’t get me wrong, are nice — but it’s going to be a tough sell without proper marketing/brand recognition to back it. Especially when you consider the phone will be going up against the Galaxy Note 8 and Pixel 2, both looking to launch later this year.
Andy Rubin (Twitter) | Tech Crunch | via The Wall Street Journal
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