It looks like the wait for the Essential Phone to be released is coming to an end soon.
When a phone launches, the expectation is that it'll be released in a couple of weeks. Companies don't like waiting to long to go from launch to release as all of the hype generated typically dies off. Essential, though, hasn't shown much of an interest in speeding things along. After introducing us to the Essential Phone on May 30, the company has gone silent on details. We've been keeping count of the days it's been since the phone launched, and today is day 52. But there's a glimmer of hope that arrived in inboxes this morning.
Essential's Andy Rubin just sent a brief letter out to those who've expressed interest in buying the Essential Phone.
Here's the message from Rubin:
“Hi Justin,
I wanted to personally thank you for putting your name down for our first phone. We've been hard at work getting everything ready and the good news is that we're now going through certification and testing with multiple US and international carriers.
You might be getting impatient to get your hands on your new Essential Phone (and I'm also impatient to get it to you!) but rest assured that you will have a device in your hands in a few weeks.
In the meantime, give us a shout out using #thisisessential to show the team that sweating the details and working long hours to get this device shipped is worth it.
Andy”
If you didn't care to read anything Rubin said, we'll tell you the key takeaways. The Essential Phone wasn't ready for the public when it debuted. Only now is it being tested on networks in the United States and around the world. Once that's out of the way upon carrier approvals, Essential is prepared to accept orders and ship the device.
Essential appears to be aiming for a mid-August or early September release, which is far from the 30-day window the company expected to have right after launching its first device.
