Smartphone maker Essential reportedly lays off 30 percent of staff

Smartphone maker Essential is laying off 30 percent of its staff, financial news agency Bloomberg reports. The company confirms that people have to leave, but does not say exactly how many there are. Essential canceled its second smartphone this year.

Essential employs about 120 people, so in absolute numbers it comes down to about 36 people. The layoffs fall in the hardware, marketing and sales departments, Bloomberg writes. The layoffs would be necessary as Essential is shifting its focus. The company canceled the successor to its 2017 PH-1 this year, and a smarthome product the company said it is working on will also not be released.

The PH-1 does have support and Essential was the first after Google to release version 9 of Android for its phone. Instead of developing a regular smartphone, Essential wants to focus on an ‘ai phone’ with a small body and the primary function of automatically replying to messages for users. Essential is the company of Andy Rubin, who once founded Android and spent years working on the mobile operating system within Google.

Essential confirmed the layoffs in a response to Bloomberg. “This was a difficult decision. We are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us bring a game changer to the market for consumers.”