U.S. carriers confirm the Essential Phone will work on their networks, but none will offer it directly

Andy Rubin's Essential Phone is the gadget of the moment sort to speak. The phone that's been designed as an alternative to powerful flagships made by Apple, LG, Huawei, Samsung and other important players in the smartphone market, is going to be hard to come by.

Although the company behind the Essential Phone is trying to reassure customers that it will seek to do everything it can to make the device as widely available as possible, it's clear that it's not ready to mass produce a ceramic-made handset.

In any case, lucky customers who manage to purchase ...