Nothing acquired Essential, but the deal is all about patents

Carl Pei traced a long path as one of the OnePlus founders remaining a key person in the company until last year. The executive was behind the OnePlus One and directed the launch of several devices later. However, he decided to leave the Chinese smartphone maker to start its own company dubbed “Nothing”. When Nothing was announced, it didn’t bring any product. For now, there is only a promise and a lot of speculation. The brand sees to be related to audio products. Yesterday, news broke out that Nothing has acquired the Essential smartphone brand. After that acquisition, the rumor mill went crazy with rumors pointing to the release of a “Nothing smartphone”.

Essential had a short life in the smartphone market

For those unaware, Essential was the company founded by Andy Rubin, the Android creator. The company brought only a single smartphone to the market in 2017 dubbed Essential Phone. The brand has built a big hype before the handset’s release, due to the Android creator’s involvement, but when it arrived on the market it couldn’t meet the expectations. First of all, the Essential PH-1 was crazily expensive and couldn’t deliver the same that other phones were offering. The device had a unique design and was effectively the first phone to come with a dot-notch design. The subsequent years since the Essential PH-1 release were full of rumors, but nothing consistent came. Andy Rubin also got involved in problems with justice forcing him to distance himself from the smartphone brand. The Essential Phone 2 never reached the market, despite the involvements, and the brand fell to limbo.

Nothing is Essential

The details about the Essential acquisition were unraveled in filings with the UK Intellectual Property Office and detailed the IP transfer was completed on January 6, 2021. Today, Carl Pei confirmed yesterday’s reports. However, he states that the deal is all about acquiring Essential patents. He further clarified that there is, nothing to share regarding Nothing’s plans with the Essential patents. While Carl Pei is keeping a low profile, it seems that “Nothing” can prevent the new brand from launching a smartphone in the future.

For now, we only know that Nothing has plans of launching its first wireless earphones this summer. Pei states that Nothing comes to create an ecosystem of devices that connect to each other and work seamlessly with one another. We are curious to see what the brand has in tow for Essential.