Tencent, Foxconn and Amazon’ Alexa Fund are part of a $300 million investment round in Essential, whose new smartphone is apparently already in production. The $699 titanium-clad handset running Ambient OS is hoped to break the Samsung-Apple, Android-iOS duopoly in the smartphone sector.
Creator of Google’s Android, Andy Rubin, is the founder and CEO of Essential and has a vision to create hardware that communicates regardless of manufacturer and operating system. This includes simplifying all the attachments for devices and, it would seem, a passion for 360-degree photography. The “world’s smallest 360-degree personal camera” that clips onto the Essential Phone is also being developed and can be bundled with the handset for $749 in total. The company is also working on a smart home hub.
Writing on Essential.com, Rubin declares the company’s beliefs:
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