Back in August Andy Rubin's new Essential company was valued at $1Billion after the hyped announcement of the Essential phone in May. When the phone was announced it would have been one of a few handsets on the market offering a minimal bezel design. The phone was attractive to many Android faithfuls because it was designed by one of the founding fathers of Android who was teasing that the phone would ship with a nearly vanilla Android experience.
The phone was eventually made available to purchase in August in one color although three were shown off at the press event. You can still only buy the phone in Black. For many who purchased the phone shipments were delayed to the point that several people gave up and cancelled their order. When the phones did finally arrive they were plagued with buggy software. The highly touted camera wasn't all that great. With all the problems the phone is still being sold at the hefty price of $700.
It is now being reported by BayStreet Research that the Essential phone has sold a meager 5,000 units. Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of Note 8 pre-orders Samsung had and things look quite bleak for Essential. That being said this is their first attempt at a major phone launch and it can only get better from here.
via FierceWireless
