Essential Phone may have sold 50,000 units according to camera app download numbers

Back in late September, we reported about a research firm that claimed Essential Phone only sold 5,000 units in the United States. Fast forward six weeks and it looks like that number increased by ten times.

Apparently, Essential Phone may have sold around 50,000 units since its release, a much better number than the amount mentioned in September. The information is based on the number of downloads of Essential's Camera app from the Google Play Store, so it surely isn't 100% accurate.

In case you're wondering how did Essential manage to boost sales of its smartphone in such a short time and obtain good numbers, here are a few things that may have contributed to Essential Phone's mild success.

First off, Essential dropped the price of the smartphone from $700 to just $500. Also, the company allowed customers to get the phone for $200 off through a friends-and-family discount. Finally, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals where the Essential Phone and the 360 Camera were on sale for just $400 probably boosted the number of units sold considerably.

Perhaps 50,000 units sold might not seem much for a flagship smartphone, but let's not forget that we're talking about a startup that is trying to gain market share in the US, a region that, at the top tier, is dominated by Apple and Samsung.