OSOM, the company founded by a bunch of former Essential employees, revealed new details about its plans to launch several products late in 2021 and beyond. The company says that it wants to focus on making hardware with a privacy mind that should be premium, just not $1,000 of premium.
During a sitdown with CNET, OSOM founder Jason Keats talked about how Essential had “80% of a great idea” that needed something extra to finish it out. He believes that missing piece was caring deeply about privacy. While I have my doubts that anyone cares about privacy like this on a we-can-sell-millions-of-these level, Keats and his team do have a bit of history to at least keep our attention for a while to learn more.
OSOM, which apparently stands for Out of Sight, Out of Mind, doesn’t necessarily want to come right out and say, “We’re making a phone!” All of this chat with Keats suggests that making a phone is the plan, only they’ll launch services alongside it, likely as a way to turn this into a moneymaker. They have more than a half dozen products lined-up to launch over the next several years.
So what’s the deal with a privacy-focused phone? Over the years, we have seen a number of phones talk big on privacy, but most were sketchy Indiegogo phones that made big promises, took a bunch of people’s money, and then failed to deliver. Or if they did ship, they were phones that no one talked about again because so few bought them. OSOM will try to change that with a story about who created the phone and also with a price tag that might be more in line with OnePlus than Samsung.
The device that OSOM releases will likely run Android and it will have parts from companies you know (going to guess Qualcomm). It should be premium, yet won’t try to compete with the most expensive phones. Keats tried to explain this by saying, “We’re not targeting our products to ultra premium users, but we are going to build premium products. We can make money doing that because of a couple other surprises up our sleeves that will be announced next year.”
Keats added that there will “never” be a scenario where they have a user’s private data. That said, the bigger goal here is to give users more control over what is shared from their phone to 3rd parties. The phone will also keep track of what is being tracked and then attempt to explain everything back to users in an absorbable way. I hate to say this, but my assumption there is that’ll happen through a software you will need to subscribe to. Maybe I’m wrong.
All of that said, OSOM has a small team working on this privacy line of hardware and software, yet doesn’t have any privacy or cybersecurity folks on the payroll. That seems odd, though there is an advisory panel helping in that department for now.
Expect a launch of OSOM products to start in late 2021 in the US and Europe.
If OSOM’s sales pitch sounds interesting, they launchd a new website today where you can sign-up to be kept in the loop on their plans.
// CNET
Man, that phone design is still gorgeous. Too bad the essential phone was junk. Wish someone made phones with the color combinations like ocean depths with gold accents. Also love the square and flat design. And that’s why I’ll keep my RazerPhone2 a bit longer…
These have been attempted and the market loudly rejected these. See BlackBerry.
The name can be catchy. Pronouncing the acronym sounds like awesome. Lol
Hopefully they make an impact on privacy while still keeping it useful, although that’s a tall order. I’m hoping that within a few years I can say goodbye to Android and use a Linux phone (Librem 5, PinePhone). The current state is not ready for mass consumption, but I am hopeful.
I hate to point it out … if people REALLY care about privacy, they wouldn’t be clicking all those terms and agreement buttons blindly. People care about privacy AFTER the fact, not before.
Frankly, they would have a much better chance by focusing on things that people actually “understand” and willing to spend money at, like: camera, battery life, etc.
if it’s anything like my essential that i refuse to replace (because nothing currently on the market is comparable), shut up and take my money.
If they’re using Google’s Android this is a lot of BS and lip service. Most of the experience is out of your control as an OEM.
If they were so good at making a phone, Essential would have succeeded. I’ll stick to the companies that know what they are doing in designing a phone….Google, Apple, Samsung
They blew it because:
1) The Essential was way overpriced
2) The camera’s quality was way below average at launch (even though it’s totally fixable by sideloading the Google Camera)
This two reasons alone generates a wave of bad review during the launch, “Essentially” killing the Essential phone. If they could lower the price by 20% or so, and license the Google Camera from Google, they could have a much better launch.
Frankly, they don’t even need to do much this time. Just release a mid-range phone without an outrageous price tag, (again) license the Google Camera or its tech, put in a bigger battery than everyone else. That’s enough to attract a bunch of buyers. May not make a ton of profit, but at least that will give them the leverage to make a second phone.
Google phones aren’t assembled well…low quality, Samsung phones are unreliable…they fail at a year… and Apple phones are restrictive in use, can’t sideload apps or do as much as you can on an Android.
Its failure had nothing to do with the design of the phone, but in the way it was released