Andy Rubin — the father of Android — has a new smartphone coming, developed under his fledgling company called "Essential," and Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt confirmed that it's launching "very soon"
Schmidt revealed the news on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/ericschmidt/status/847125894753792000
"Phenomenal new choices for Android users coming very soon," Schmidt said. The tweet comes on the same day that Samsung introduced its major new smartphone, the Galaxy S8, though Schmidt didn't mention Samsung's new phone at all.
Little is known about Essential's smartphone, which is still in development, but Rubin teased the device earlier this week in a photo posted to Twitter. That's when we got a first glimpse at the still-unnamed smartphone and learned that it appears to have an edge-to-edge display.
Essential is still operating in stealth mode but reportedly has as many as 40 full-time employees, including executives who spent time at other large smartphone and tech companies such as Apple and HTC. The device will, of course, run on Android.
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