eBay seller claims an Essential Home smart speaker prototype can be yours for $900

Image: eBay

A prototype smart speaker from Essential has appeared in an eBay listing. It offers a glimpse at what the device could have been. The device's circular screen is illuminated with elements like its lock screen and settings menus visible in the photos. The seller is asking for a lot of money.

We wouldn't blame you if you don't remember the Essential Home. The smart speaker and the Essential Phone were announced in May of last year, and the company said it hoped to ship both later in the summer. The smart speaker was nowhere to be found when the phone was released in August. After releasing one product, Essential would shut down.

Image: Essential

Image: eBay

When the Essential Home was announced, it was meant to bring all the smart home platforms together under one roof. It could be woken with a glance and support touch and voice controls. Setting timers, controlling your music, and responding to general interest questions were all mentioned as possible features.

A new operating system, called Ambient OS, was the key to a lot of thisFunctionality, it was able to bridge different smart home systems and process all its data locally rather than in the cloud. The photos on the eBay listing suggest that the smart speaker is actually running a version of the operating system that is called a "Ambient OS".

It is not clear how functional this prototype is or whether a developer could get anything out of it. It looks like it's a hint at what could have happened to Essential, a company with so much hype that it was valued at over a billion dollars before it even shipped its first and last phone.