Tech

Andy Rubin's Essential Phone is getting a price cut amid reports of poor sales

By Rob Price
Andy Rubin Essential
Essential CEO and founder Andy Rubin holding the PH-1. Brian Ach/Stringer
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  • The high-end Essential Phone's price has been slashed by $200 (£151).
  • It's the latest project from Andy Rubin, the inventor of Android.
  • But reports suggest it hasn't been selling well as it competes with the likes of Google and Apple.


The Essential Phone, a high-end smartphone designed by Android creator Andy Rubin, is getting its priced slashed by $200 (£151).

The drop, from $699 (£530) to $499 (£378), comes after reports of disappointing sales for the new PH-1 devices — and alongside the launch of multiple new high-end devices from the likes of Apple and Google.

(The Essential Phone isn't yet available in the UK. The Financial Times reported in July that it would launch by the end of 2017. The UK price will presumably be in line with this lower price point.)

The Essential Phone is the first device released by Essential, a startup founded by Android creator Andy Rubin after leaving Google in 2014. It started with phones, and plans to branch out from there. There are already modular add-ons available for the Essential Phone, including a 360-degree camera.

Essential PH 1
The Essential PH-1 phone has a distinctive camera notch at the top of the screen.  Essential

In a blog post announcing the price drop, Essential took a not-so-subtle dig at its rivals, writing: "We could have created a massive TV campaign to capture your attention, but we think making it easier for people to get their hands on our first products is a better way to get to know us." (Customers who already bought a device are being offered $200 credit.)

So how may people have "got their hands" on Essential's products? The company hasn't released sales figures, but some reports don't look positive.

Market research firm BayStreet Research said the smartphone sold just 5,000 devices in its first two weeks in the US — a drop in the ocean compared to the likes of Apple, Samsung, and so on. (In 2015, Apple's iPhone 7s sold 13 million units in its first weekend available.)

Per Fortune, that equates to just $3.5 million (£2.6 million) in revenue. That's almost nothing when you consider Essential raised $300 million (£227 million) from investors earlier this year in a Series B funding round.

Meanwhile, Google has announced its new Pixel 2 Android smartphones, to positive reviews (concerns about the screen on the Pixel 2 XL notwithstanding). And Apple is about to release the eagerly anticipated iPhone X, a tenth anniversary edition of its iconic smartphone with a major new redesign.

It's a crowded field, and it sounds like the Essential Phone is finding it hard to compete.

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Reporter Rob Price sitting at a table
Rob Price
Rob Price was a senior correspondent at Business Insider, based in San Francisco. He wrote investigations and long-form features about platforms, people, and power in Silicon Valley.His stories variously led to attorney general investigations, large-scale internal reviews at major tech companies, high-profile personnel departures, citation by state and federal lawmakers, and the closure of a well-funded startup. His 2022 story on the Bitfinex hack is being adapted into a feature film, and in 2024 he received an SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism award for his reporting on AI and relationships.Rob's scoops and exclusive stories were cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Axios, and many other national and international publications. His writing has also been published in or syndicated by The Washington Post, The Independent, Vice, Slate, and elsewhere, and he appeared on CNN, the BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC Australia, and other broadcast media to discuss technology, business, and culture.He worked for Business Insider from 2015 to 2025. Prior to joining the features team, Rob covered Facebook and Silicon Valley, and before that wrote about tech business, policy, and the gig economy in London. Between September and October 2019, he was acting executive editor for Business Insider's UK bureau. He also sat on the board of directors for the San Francisco Press Club, the leading non-profit media advocacy group in the Bay Area, and was a volunteer crew member at the Marine Mammal Center, the world's largest animal hospital for marine mammals. You can contact Rob Price via email at robaeprice@gmail.com, or +1 650-636-6268 (Signal / WhatsApp / Cell). Selected stories:— They spoke out against their employer. Then they were hit with trade secrets suits.— The rise of 'shadow stand-ins'— App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbot— Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth— Private islands, flying cars, and psychedelic parties: Inside the wild post-Google lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin— 'I want your Instagram account': First came the threatening texts, followed by the SWAT teams. Then someone wound up dead.— Inside Iconiq: How Mark Zuckerberg's banker built a secret Silicon Valley empire and made billions— Gaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreams— A drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.
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