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Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

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Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#201

Post by dpark »

Eridrus wrote: post #160
shubhamjain wrote: post #62

It doesn't seem premium Android phones have something spectacular to differentiate. Sure, you can spice up the camera, make the body more glossy, and add a beautiful screen. But the software is just another commodity that would be available for 1/3rd the price. That's why Google Pixel would always feel exorbitant even when the price is almost close to Apple iPhone. Seeing Essential's price tag, I have the same viscer…

I've come to the conclusion that neither I, nor the majority of HN, have any clue what sorts of consumer electronics will actually succeed. I was annoyed when Google killed the Nexus line and replaced them with Pixels and hoped it would fail so that we would get the Nexus line back, but they've been unable to keep up with demand. Similarly this page spends a lot of time talking about cameras, which I have zero intere…

> I was annoyed when Google killed the Nexus line and replaced them with Pixels and hoped it would fail so that we would get the Nexus line back, but they've been unable to keep up with demand.

In what way is it meaningful that Google calls it a Pixel instead of a Nexus?

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#202

Post by ovao »

jjoonathan wrote: post #195
russellbeattie wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing person: "I think it'll be cute to add our pets to the about page!" Employees with dogs: "Aww! It'll be so cute to add our dogs! Let's give them fun titles!" Most people: "So cute! Look honey, they have a picture of a dog named 'Cosmo' that's their 'Head of Security'! Haha!" Hacker News: "This is an affront to the serious nature of computer security and an insult! I am shocked that a startup would make such…

Situation: There are 0 people and 2 dogs listed as the security department on a platform where security has long been a metaphorical joke and is now evidently a literal joke. HN: What's the big deal? Most people: It's a little creepy that everyone knows everything about me, and the identity theft epidemic kinda sucks. Not much I can do other than keep an eye on the accounts, chase down fraud as it happens, self-censo…

The About page lists a fairly large number of engineers, some of whom who no doubt have responsibilities involving security. But Essential is not Android, and nor are they Google, so they have a much smaller subset of security concerns to deal with as a handset maker.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#204

Post by Animats »

First-world problem: what business to start when you have too much money and no really good ideas.

- Private space program? Everybody's done that.

- Sports team? Not into sports enough.

- Museum? Boring.

- Supercar company? IC engines are so last-cen and electrics mean competing with Elon.

- Super high end phone? Yeah!

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#206

Post by datatan »

nailer wrote: post #65
shubhamjain wrote: post #62

It doesn't seem premium Android phones have something spectacular to differentiate. Sure, you can spice up the camera, make the body more glossy, and add a beautiful screen. But the software is just another commodity that would be available for 1/3rd the price. That's why Google Pixel would always feel exorbitant even when the price is almost close to Apple iPhone. Seeing Essential's price tag, I have the same viscer…

I just want a phone that: - Lasts a full day - Looks nice That's all. Currently I can buy various 8mm phones with various bad-to-OK cases. Give me a beautiful 16mm phone and software updates and I'll give you my 700 bucks.

I went 6 days on a charge with my iphone 7 plus. Granted I didn't do much with it but I can go 3 days easily with moderate use. With no data cap I just turn wifi off all the time, saves the majority of my battery that way.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#207

Post by gallerdude »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #186
gallerdude wrote: post #171

I do think pricing is the biggest problem here. Android phones have been flourishing recently because of cut prices (see: Moto G, OnePlus). There's a LOT of good options for high end Android phones, and even if you manage to take 2nd or 3rd place, you won't remotely get half or a third of the profits. They're getting too greedy too early. You have to earn the public's trust before you jump in with a $700 device.

On the other hand, wouldn't it be hard to raise the price after grounding it low? What they're saying is "we're a luxury phone like iPhone."

I mean, yeah, it's infinitely easier to lower a price than raise it, but at the same time if they announced it today with a killer price their marketing would have a lot more momentum.

re: "we're a luxury phone like iPhone," this is a claim that they don't have the brand to attempt. Sure, the co-creator of Android is nice, but I doubt anyone will be compelled by it. Building a top of the line brand takes years of cultivation and careful adjustment. Essential has to prove itself before it can just 'be luxury'.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#208

Post by Animats »

raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem.

There are good rugged phones that don't need a case. Caterpillar (yes, the bulldozer maker) has a phone brand.[1] Kyocera and Samsung make rugged phones, as do some smaller players. Also, the web site for this new phone doesn't mention MIL-STD-810G testing, which is the usual standard for rugged portable devices. (For that, it's OK if the case gets scuffed, but the thing has to work after the drop testing. The parent article seems more concerned with the appearance than the functionality.)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVPku-xItv8

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#209

Post by groundCode »

ghthor wrote: post #15
groundCode wrote: post #11

Hope the product is better than the website....

Website seemed quite functional for me on my galaxy 7. What were your gripes?

My main gripe is that in general, I don't think it puts the user first. It's flashy for the sake of it and I find it a terrible user experience. This is certainly subjective, but it's not helping my impression of the product which I now associate with an ideal that is trying to show how clever the designers are but not really put an excellent sublime user experience in my hands (which is what I think they were shooting for. This is all completely subjective, but they are my impressions none the less.

The site "works" on my laptop, but not really on my phone - I'm not a fan of the overly flashy animation intro, again subjective.

I work on a small screen (12.5 inch) - here's my narrative as I load the site - the entire screen is taken up with a menu bar and a picture of the top of a device. I'm not sure what is on offer at first glance. Scrolling down there's a lovely story to draw me in by the founder, but still no mention of what the "thing" he is trying to sell is.

The first mention on the page of any product is "accessories" - so they sell accessories for phones I guess.....I scroll back up - aaaaah one of the menu items is "phone" - maybe they are selling a phone.

That was my user experience on my laptop. On my phone I was greeted with a black screen for quite a few seconds and then a website that was slow and dithering. I tried clicking through to a few sub pages but they froze and then broke my back button completely. Granted it's an old, slow barely internet enabled mobile with a not very well supported OS. Still, it's very seldom I don't get a reasonable experience on well coded websites.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#210

Post by dang »

whisdol wrote: post #36

They seem to avoid mentioning the version of Android they are running - the specs only say "Android". I'd like to be exited about this, but this uncertainty combined with the fact that their security personnel is a team of dogs[1] makes it quite hard for me. [1] https://www.essential.com/about

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14444305 and marked it off-topic.
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