Still remember Essential? That project by Andy Rubin, The Father of Android, ceased operations early last year. The company was shut down and the Essential team was no more. But looks like the brand will have a new lease in life especially now that Essential is now owned by Carl Pei. Yes, you read that right. Carl Pei, OnePlus’ co-founder who left the brand last year, is the new owner of Essential. Nothing, the new brand, is taking over Essential. This means Essential’s technologies can be used by Pei and his team.
There is no formal and official announcement, at least, not yet, but our source shared they discovered some documents at the UK Intellectual Property Office, saying Andy Rubin has signed over ownership of Essential to Nothing Technologies Limited. No details of finances have been provided but we believe it’s worth a lot of money. The application was filed November 11, 2020 and the process was completed by January 6, 2021.
Essential Product’s logo, trademarks, and the whole brand are now owned by Carl Pei. Everything is now the intellectual property of Nothing. Note that Alphabet (Google’s mother company) invested on Pei’s startup.
From Essential to Nothing
It is still unclear if Nothing will join the smartphone market. At the moment, we only know about the wireless earbuds. Nothing having Essential’s assets may be a good start. Let’s wait and see if a Nothing phone will be introduced this year. But we’re crossing our fingers Carl Pei changes the name. We don’t want calling it a “Nothing Phone” when it has the “essentials” inside.
Essential also previously dipped into the smart home arena. It was believed to be developing a smart home hub and speaker. Nothing could start again on what Essential had planned.
There is no word if former Essential employees will join Pei. We know some of them have started a startup called OSOM Privacy. A team has begun working on privacy-focused hardware and software. Now let’s see how Essential can make Nothing better.
