Essential phone could start shipping by June-end, carrier partnerships to be announced soon

The newly-unveiled Essential phone - dubbed Essential PH-1 - could start shipping by the end of June. In his first interview after the device's announcement, company's founder Andy Rubin said that they have plans to ship out reservations "within 30 days."

For those who aren't in the know, the handset carries a $700 price tag, and isn't up for sale yet - you can currently reserve a unit by heading to the company's official website (for now registrations are US-only).

The phone will be made available through other channels as well, with Rubin noting that carrier and retail partnerships will be announced soon, although an exact time-frame wasn't revealed.

As for carrier-specific OS customizations, Rubin said the goal is to "try as hard as I can to have a pro-consumer product where you get to decide what's on your phone." He also noted that Essential itself also won't do much customizations to stock Android.

The complete interview is embedded below.

Via