Essential Phone DOA (as predicted by every conscious onlooker)

No surprise. Though it’s actually even more disastrous than even I would have imagined—just 5,000 sold...

http://bgr.com/2017/09/27/essential-phone-release-date-sprint-amazon-sales/

When will they learn?

This is the first time I have heard of this phone. Lol

This thing was a disaster. The software issues, the delays to market, the niche carrier selection, the high price. Yikes!

The last company that did something similar was OnePlus. Their first phone in 2014 was only expected to sell 50,000 units, it ended up selling over a million before the end of the year. The OnePlus 5 was their fastest selling phone yet. While they're far from a major company, they at least succeeded by finding growth year over year. Of course, it's also worth noting that Oppo Electronics, the parent of OnePlus, is quite large.

As for those looking for a bezel-less display, phones like the iPhone X, Galaxy S8, LG V30 or Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 seem to do a better job.

Yeah, I never heard of em. RIP.

Must not be that essential, lmao

@NVIDIATI: I kicked around the idea of a bezel-free phone a lot before buying my 8+.

I’m going to hold off until they’re truly free of bezels, chins, and notches. The 8+ is about as close as possible to the perfect phone in this design, so I’m happy to enjoy that for the time being.

Two things about the X that I know are true:

1. Apple would have hidden the sensors in the notch if it were technically possible, and it will be in time—that’s just a fact.

2. Apple wanted Touch ID behind the screen, but it wasn’t possible (to satisfy Apple) yet, but it’s likely they’ll get there, too.

So until we work through those issues and make it past the first generation of “bezel-free” phones, I’ll roll with the 8+.

@musicalmac

Unless Face ID turns out to be a functional disaster, I don't really see a reason for Apple adding back Touch ID. I mean, they put a lot of effort in trying to convince everyone that Face ID was vastly superior to Touch ID.

The new, BlackBerry 10-like, UI for the iPhone X has also been designed to avoid the use of a home button. Samsung, for example, uses a pressure sensitive spot on the display as their home button. This would be more intuitive for placing a sensor behind the display.

Apple's trying to show that the iPhone 8/8 Plus are their old designs, and that the iPhone X is the future. Bringing back Touch ID seems like a step backwards, or at least a reversal in their design language.

@NVIDIATI: You're right, I completely agree. Going back to Touch ID would indeed be a step backwards, for the exact reason you just identified. However, if they could have included it as well, I believe they would have.

Right now, they're struggling to get enough sensors to make enough X units and will likely not meet demand until early next year. Popular theory would lead one to believe that this is the last year Apple will release new an iPhone that features any bezel at all, but I wonder if it'll stick around for just a while longer (new).

We'll see, of course.

@musicalmac I think due to the volume in which Apple ships iPhones, they won't be able to secure enough supply by late next year to only ship a bezel-free iPhone. The LCD based iPhones are likely here for at least another year.

I'm also unsure of their naming moving forward. Clearly the iPhone 7S name was skipped, likely due to 8 being a lucky number in China. So perhaps an iPhone 8S in 2018? And then there's the "iPhone ten"... So in 2018 will it be the "iPhone eleven"? Hmm.

I think they skipped 7s because the "s" stood for speed, which was the primary boost between iPhones like the 3 and 4 and their successors (3GS and 4s). However, it's not a good long-term solution for phone nomenclature. I think they missed an opportunity here, but perhaps necessarily, to celebrate the 10th year of the iPhone (hence, iPhone X). If I had the choice, I'd rename the iPhone line in much the same way they handled the iPads.

iPad Pro/iPhone Pro
iPad/iPhone
iPad Mini/iPhone Mini

But I don't know what they're planning in their product pipeline. What I do know is that they're planning for iPhones that won't be released for another 5 years and they've got a plan.

(Apple plans far ahead of moves, like how OSX was running on Intel hardware for years before they actually released an Intel Mac)