Essential is dead, one less hardware platform choice

Essential was best know for its PH-1 smart phone. It was pure Android from one of Android’s Co-Founders Andy Rubin. Seemingly an early success with a Sprint compatible version and many new colors arriving shortly after its initial debut. Outside of Apple and Samsung though no one else is making any many on smart phones and Essential needed to make money to stay afloat.

Essential started to show off Project Gem last year, probably to gain interest from investors and the general public. Project Gem had a voice first OS called Ambient OS. You would use your voice to navigate the interface in some cases.

Our vision was to invent a mobile computing paradigm that more seamlessly integrated with people’s lifestyle needs. Despite our best efforts, we’ve now taken Gem as far as we can and regrettably have no clear path to deliver it to customers.

Here at Platform De.Central we advocate for more market choice in every aspect of technology platforms. It is certainly sad to see one more hardware platform bite the dust as the hardware platform duopoly of Apple & Samsung survives.

Below are videos of Project GEM in action.

By Platform De.Central