Head of R&D at Essential: 'We aren't done, not by a long shot'

Late last week, we found out the Essential Phone’s stock had run dry and would not be replenished. Many news publications took that information and ran with it, posting headlines such as “The Essential Phone is dead,” and “RIP Essential Phone.”

After reading headlines like those, one might jump to the conclusion that Essential itself is dying as well. However, Jason Keats — the head of research and development at Essential — would beg to differ. Shortly after the headlines began making their way across the ‘net, Keats took to Twitter to dispel the rumors:

In the tweet, Keats says that the negative headlines about “the death” of the Essential Phone simply fuel his desire to succeed with the company going forward. He ends the tweet by saying, “We [Essential] aren’t done, not by a long shot.”

While this isn’t quite an official announcement from the company, it does seem to suggest Essential is simply transitioning at the moment. Although Andy Rubin — the founder and head of Essential, and the so-called “Father of Android” — is in some trouble right now in both the PR and legal sense, and the company just laid off a third of its workforce, it appears all that bad news combined with the end of Essential Phone production isn’t what it seems to be.

In fact, back at the beginning of November, Keats posted this cryptic tweet about some big news at Essential:

While no concrete information is relayed in that tweet, it does seem to suggest there’s something big in the pipeline. That something might make an appearance next week at CES 2019, if rumors surrounding Essential are to be believed.

It should also be mentioned that Keats might not be the most reliable source when it comes to relaying company news. In the thread of comments under his tweet about the company not being done, someone cheekily referred to the headphone jack as being “essential,” referencing the fact that the Essential Phone does not have the much-loved port. Keats responded with an angry-sounding message in which he claims responsibility for the removal of the jack because he hates it and feels it drives phone design in bad directions.

However, Keats then deleted that tweet shortly after.

Luckily, the tweet has been preserved in the screenshot below:

While people delete tweets all the time, it doesn’t make a person look too reliable when they are in the habit of going “off script” for a bit and then deleting their statements. With that in mind, take any information Keats delivers on Twitter with a grain of salt.

What do you think? Is Essential going to make one of the biggest potential comebacks in mobile history, or is the company just hanging on by a thread? Let us know your theories in the comments.

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