Andy Rubin, the co-creator Android who is known as ”the father of Android” was rumored to launch his own high-end flagship smartphone as early as the oncoming spring to take on the likes of iPhone and Google Pixel smartphones. Fresh reports reveal that the Japan-based SoftBank that was supposed to fund the launch of Rubin’s smartphone has decided not to invest $100 million in Essential Products Inc, a startup company led by Rubin.

Rubin was supposed to launch his smartphone through Essential Products Inc, a new firm consisting of around 40 people that were previous employees of Google, Apple, or Samsung. SoftBank and Essential were reportedly working on the final stages of the contract, but the financing firm has decided to scrap the deal. Citing unnamed sources, The Wall Street Journal has reported that it was because of a conflict in interest that made SoftBank decide to not to provide funds to Essential.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has plans to launch a tech-based investment group called vision Fund later this year with $100 billion in capital. Apple will be investing $1 billion in this fund. Son apparently felt that investing in Essential for Rubin’s smartphone could disturb SoftBank’s relationship with Apple.

Related: Android Co-Founder Andy Rubin Has a New Company Working on a Modular Smartphone

SoftBank had acquired ARM chipmaker in September. The ARM-based processers are used in devices manufactured by Samsung, LG and other companies. Investing in a probable competitor like Essential could lead to restrained relationship with partnering companies. This is also considered to be another reason why SoftBank has withdrawn its investment decision on Essential.

Another report has revealed that Essential would be getting $100 million from unnamed investors instead of SoftBank. Essential is likely to close this deal soon which could possibly help Rubin to launch his smartphone by spring.

Rubin’s smartphone is expected to sport a 5.5-inch pressure-sensitive bezel-less display. It also speculated to carry support for modular accessories like the Moto Mods available for Moto Z series smartphones.

The smartphone was allegedly spotted with Essential FIH-PM1 moniker on Geekbench benchmarks with specs like Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4 GB of RAM and Android 7.0 Nougat OS. In single-core test, it recorded a score of 1,844 whereas it scored 5,426 on multi-core test. Speculations indicate that it is being assembled by Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) which can be seen in the moniker that appeared on Geekbench.

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For those who do not know who Andy Rubin is, the following lines should serve as a crash course. Andy Rubin is the co-founder of Android Inc., and after Google acquired it he served as Senior VP of Mobile and Digital Content up until 2013 when he left to head Google’s robotics division. After leaving the search giant in 2014, he set up Playground Global, an incubator for funding startups involved in manufacturing hardware devices.

Presently, he has a new company called Essential Products Inc.; a company focused on making consumer hardware products. Essential Products Inc. has plans to launch a number of their products soon, one of which is a high-end smartphone that will have ‘‘the ability to gain new hardware features over time’’. Not only will the phone be taking a stab at modularity, it is also said to have a large bezel-less display.

The exciting part is actually the modular feature of the phone. According to the description provided, the phone will have a proprietary magnetic connector that serves as a way to charge the phone and also works as a way of expanding the phone’s functionality. So we might be looking at hardware add-ons that attach to the charging port.

Although the company is working on a spherical camera module that shoots high resolution 360° images, the phone will support modules from third parties too.

A prototype of the phone is said to have a display that is bigger than that of the iPhone 7 Plus but has a smaller form factor thanks to its lack of bezels. A similar design can be seen in the Xiaomi Mi MIX. The large display and small size is not the only way the device is similar to Xiaomi’s phone, as it is said to also have a ceramic back. There is also a chance that the display might be pressure sensitive.

READ MORE: LG Confirms That The LG G6 Won’t Be Modular

Rumored to be out by the middle of the year and mass manufactured by Foxconn, the Essential phone is expected to be priced in the same range as Google’s Pixel and the new iPhones. There is no word on what OS the phone will run on but the bet is on it being Android.

Are you excited about a new modular phone?

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