Andy Rubin’s smartphone company, Essential, may be moving through a tough period of time. While it has still to ship its first flagship device into the markets, Essential has now lost a top executive for the third time in the last month. This development casts serious doubt as to what the company’s future may be and if it will be able to make its mark in the smartphone industry, as many had been predicting.
Earlier in the year, Rubin announced that his company was working on its first smartphone, which would directly compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung handsets in the market.
The Essential Phone was rumored to feature some of the most high-end specs and its design also reminded one of Samsung’s Galaxy S8, due to the near absence of any bezel space. However, one is now left to wonder what really went wrong that more and more executives are starting to leave the company?
Essential loses head of UX, Liron Damir
On his LinkedIn account, Damir recently updated his employment status to reflect that he was now appointed at Google. He was the former lead designer in Pebble and webOS. However, he was working as the lead at UX for Andy Rubin’s company.
Damir did not give any indication as to what led to his leaving Essential to join Google, but whatever it may be his departure will surely have adverse effects on the company’s upcoming projects.
He revealed that he will now be in charge of the team handling all Google Home related products’ designs in his new place of employment. A Google spokesperson has also confirmed Damir’s appointment on Thursday, July 27, but did not comment further.
Before joining Essential, Damir was the Vice President of Pebble, a smart watch brand which was acquired by Fitbit.
He also designed the webOS software at HP and later continued that work in LG when the operating system was sold to the South Korean company. However, what the impacts of losing such a talented and experienced executive will be for Essential is something which only time will tell.
Other top executives who exited from Essential
At the beginning of July, Essential lost the Vice President of Marketing, Brian Wallace. Head of Communications, Andy Fouche also followed Wallace’s exit just some days later. Now, Damir’s resignation has left Essential in a precarious position.
Andy Rubin unveiled his Essential Phone in the end of May but has yet to start shipping the device to customers waiting for it. Last week, he declared that the company would start shipping the phones in just a few weeks. However, he did not indicate an exact frame of time when the handset could be expected to hit the shelves.
