They'll be bought by Google at some point I presume.
"How to change jobs to increase compensation", top exec version.
Or, sometimes, for the acquiring company "how to shift budget from M&A to R&D without upsetting investors"
Essential Raises $300M
51–60 of 63 posts
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Kotlin is a smart move to exfiltrate from the legal corner Google has painted itself with Java-the-Language, but the fact that this came from a 3rd party is pretty telling Android is open, most good ideas come from the community. The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins.
>The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins. In what world is Go a realistic consideration in this discussion ? Android is built on top of a JVM - Go is a native language with no JVM access. Not to mention it has nothing to do with Go target domain. Google already has an alternative mobile OS with Fuchsia and the front-end Flutter stac…
Hopefully we'll see Kotlin on Fuchsia too, the language is way to nice to break that relationship
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#53This one honestly makes no sense to me. How is this company being valued at a Billion dollars with a flagship product that is indistinguishable in features and price from any of its competitors. Who the hell is going to gamble on a new, no name brand for a $700 product that is exactly like the very reputable products from Apple, Samsung, and 50 other phone manufacturers?!?
Somewhat flippantly: they bought the domain name. The investment is in a hardware/software services brand with a founder with expert experience of the field - the phone is a 0.1 product for the company. The wider vision will be an (assuming) quick roll out of assorted smart home/business tech built around the "Essential" brand, with a nice proprietary software layer linking it all up. With his experience, I highly do…
That's true, depending on the terms of what happens in case of a flop, if investor's shares are realised at strike price with priority over other ones, than for investors risk is greatly reduced
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#54This one honestly makes no sense to me. How is this company being valued at a Billion dollars with a flagship product that is indistinguishable in features and price from any of its competitors. Who the hell is going to gamble on a new, no name brand for a $700 product that is exactly like the very reputable products from Apple, Samsung, and 50 other phone manufacturers?!?
Roll the dice. Why not? Maybe they get bought.
I didn't understand NextStep or BeOS. But they were the final two choices (to replace Mac System 9).
Sometimes the innovation, execution has to happen on its own.
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins. In what world is Go a realistic consideration in this discussion ? Android is built on top of a JVM - Go is a native language with no JVM access. Not to mention it has nothing to do with Go target domain. Google already has an alternative mobile OS with Fuchsia and the front-end Flutter stac…
Hopefully we'll see Kotlin on Fuchsia too, the language is way to nice to break that relationship
IMO compared to Dart it's not (or at least that much of) an improvement like it is over Java.
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Kotlin is a smart move to exfiltrate from the legal corner Google has painted itself with Java-the-Language, but the fact that this came from a 3rd party is pretty telling Android is open, most good ideas come from the community. The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins.
>The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins. In what world is Go a realistic consideration in this discussion ? Android is built on top of a JVM - Go is a native language with no JVM access. Not to mention it has nothing to do with Go target domain. Google already has an alternative mobile OS with Fuchsia and the front-end Flutter stac…
> In what world is Go a realistic consideration in this discussion ?
It actually works rather well, specially as a C++ replacement.
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Kotlin is a smart move to exfiltrate from the legal corner Google has painted itself with Java-the-Language, but the fact that this came from a 3rd party is pretty telling Android is open, most good ideas come from the community. The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins.
>The fact that Google chose Kotlin over Go shows that there is very little politics in Android, the best technology often wins. In what world is Go a realistic consideration in this discussion ? Android is built on top of a JVM - Go is a native language with no JVM access. Not to mention it has nothing to do with Go target domain. Google already has an alternative mobile OS with Fuchsia and the front-end Flutter stac…
[deleted]
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically the reason this thing gets $300 million is because Andy Rubin is at the helm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Rubin His track record is amazing (Danger/Android). I agree 100% with everything you have said but I'm willing to see where this goes based solely on his reputation. Surely their is something more to this than just building a high end Android phone with a little privacy tech thrown in.
I won't attack his history, I don't know it well. I will attack his sustainability, however. This phone won't sell. It is not innovative enough nor in touch with the market. I will say I watched his interview at codecon, and he seemed completely self absorbed. It didn't help that he kept bragging about Android popularity, which he had little to do with, on top of its awful design.
Providing a stock Android experience and timely updates is enough innovation when it comes to Android phones. If they manage that then I'll give them a shot.
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#59This one honestly makes no sense to me. How is this company being valued at a Billion dollars with a flagship product that is indistinguishable in features and price from any of its competitors. Who the hell is going to gamble on a new, no name brand for a $700 product that is exactly like the very reputable products from Apple, Samsung, and 50 other phone manufacturers?!?
Well, when you're the creator of a the largest phone operating system on the planet it's probably pretty easy to raise some cash for a phone startup.
Re: Essential Raises $300M
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> that would break away reliance on Google There are substitutes for Search, Gmail, Apps Suite and Chrome, but the rest of the basic services are not that easy to replace. Maps with turn-by-turn directions, Google Translate, Google Photos with unlimited backup are all essentials for mobile consumers nowadays.
I actually think maps is the easiest to replace. We have bing maps, HERE, waze and multiple open source projects.
Waze is also owned by Google, but other than that I think it's a good point that there are a couple of other viable maps options. But still, you need something that actually works well, or you'll get to re-live the fiasco that was Apple Maps, so I don't think there are more than a couple viable options.