Nothing reveals why it bought Essential; and it's not because of the patents

In February 2021, it was reported that Nothing had acquired Essential Inc., or what was left of the short-lived company founded by Andy Rubin. While Nothing didn't reveal any details about the acquisition and what it plans to do with it back then, it has now released a video explaining why it bought Essential.

In the almost 7-minute long video, we get multiple views of a working prototype of Essential's Project Gem smartphone. While it was interesting to see the quirky phone that never got released, the video revealed more interesting details. According to Carl Pei, before deciding on calling the company Nothing, the brand considered being called Essential.

In Carl Pei's words, the name Essential is 'so simple' and 'so elegant' such that they went ahead to buy the trademarks; the web domain (Essential.com) which Carl says is going to be valuable in the future; and the social media handles. Although he clarifies that there were no patents involved. When asked how much Nothing paid for the acquisition, Carl declined to reveal it as doing so would be a breach of the NDA they signed.

However, despite the acquisition, the decision to be called Essential was changed after a few weeks as they decided not to go along with it because 'it was somebody else's name in the same category of product' and they didn't want to confuse the market into thinking this was a revival of the Essential brand.

Apart from Essential, Carl Pei also revealed that 'Stone' was another name they considered. While that might sound like a weird name much like Nothing, Carl explains that the name of a brand is both important and not so important. However, the quality of products the said company releases is more important. Citing Apple as an example, which is an unusual name for a company since it is the name of a fruit but has come to be widely known since it makes great products.

This year, we saw Nothing make use of the Essential name when it announced the Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro (available on Amazon for $499). Both smartphones launched with a new physical button called the Essential Key which launches a feature called Essential Space when pressed.