Essential Phone will be a Sprint exclusive

A couple of weeks ago, Andy Rubin took the wraps off the Essential Phone. You can currently pre-order the high-end device from the company’s website, but it looks like you’ll also be able to get it from Sprint soon. In an interview with USA TODAY, Essential’s President, Niccolo de Masi, said that the company’s first smartphone will be exclusive to the fourth biggest carrier in the country.

So, why did the company decide to partner with Sprint and not one of the other big carriers? Niccolo de Masi explained this by saying that they like to bet where they think the market is going and not where the market was. Based on his words, he clearly thinks highly of Sprint and even described it as the network of the future.

One thing worth pointing out is that Andy Rubin is a good friend of Masayoshi Son, who is the CEO of SoftBank. In case you didn’t know, SoftBank, which is based in Japan, owns 83 percent of Sprint. That’s probably also a big reason as to why the two companies have decided to join forces.

Sprint hasn’t announced when exactly will they start selling the Essential Phone. However, the company’s chief marketing officer, Roger Solé, did say that the device will be very prominent in the carrier’s stores and will have a “premium space” where customers will be able to check it out. It won’t have a Sprint logo on it, which is something most consumers will welcome with open arms, right?

Sprint also didn’t mention anything about pricing. Although as the device is up for pre-order on Essential’s website, so we already know what to expect. The smartphone isn’t the most affordable you can get, as it will set you back $699. At Code Conference 2017, Andy Rubin said that it will start shipping to customers by the end of this month.