In October 2020, Carl Pei confirmed leaving OnePlus, the company he had co-founded. He was the soul of OnePlus, who slipped out to establish a company that has the potential to change the future of some of the gadgets we use. Called Nothing, the London-based company has done fairly well getting investors on board and delivering its first product — Ear 1 wireless earbuds which proved worthy of being called the most loved earbuds of last year.
Nothing is on the verge of releasing its most important product — a smartphone simply called Phone 1. The problem he has to tackle lies in delivering a phone that’s unlike the black boring slabs we carry around and, secondly, deliver features that matter rather than working on a dozen amazing tech breakthroughs that nobody cares about.
Sounds simple but the odds are stacked against Team Nothing as it ultimately has to fight the two big companies — Apple and Samsung, who have unlimited (at least, that’s the feeling outsiders get) resources at their disposal.
On July 12 Nothing Phone 1 will be launched. Like Ear 1, it’s an open design Nothing has gone in for, much like the philosophy the company is trying to portray. Several aspects of the phone have been revealed over the last few weeks, like at an event in March, Pei’s company teased details of the Nothing OS launcher, which was released in beta in May. The phone is expected to feature transparent elements while powering it will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The latest picture shows white and pale grey components on the inside, a dual rear camera and wireless charging.
Like the image of his company, Pei has given out information about the phone in drips, keeping people excited. A few things to remember here. First, the marketing suits a generation of audience who lap up anything snippety. Give fans the picture of a transparent rear panel and 167 interpretations take over Twitter. Next day, show them another aspect of the phone and 289 interpretations are offered. But this may also create a bump in the road because we can’t forget that Nothing is a start-up and if the product doesn’t hit important notes, it will then have to take two steps backwards. A lot of new start-ups have come and, sadly, gone, like Essential. If OnePlus has turned out to be a big success, one can’t forget the support BBK Electronics had offered in the early days. For Nothing, it’s a different scenario. At the same time, Nothing is coming in with zero baggage (except a lot of expectations).
Nothing phones also have to find a niche of its own. It can’t spread itself thin and hope everyone laps up the phone. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, on his mind was only one thing — sell books online; he didn’t worry about other categories or divisions. Pei has to consider every market Nothing will be present in minutely. What may click with audiences in Stockholm and London may not make cash registers ring in India. Of course, the 32-year-old knows this well and has chosen the correct people to give proper direction, like Manu Sharma is VP and general manager in India; he is a Samsung veteran who has a nuanced approach to marketing and knows how to give any brand a focus.
Pei is among the most important tech personalities globally. He knows how to keep a secret as much as to time its reveal. By giving the world enough to talk about in terms of Phone 1, Pei must also be busy focusing on the rollout plan of other products because no tech company can go one device at a time. For example, we may get iPhone 14 in a few months but the folks at Apple must be working on next year’s iPhone as well as planning the one that will come after that.
What we want Nothing to do is make phones glamorous again, a lifestyle item, something we can cherish… make Android phones standout. At the same time, Pei has to keep his ears to the ground and consider things like Right to Repair and easy ways to get a device serviced.
A few months ago Pei had told Wired, “We’re not a 20-person team, like other start-ups trying to make smartphones. We are almost a 300-person team.” Let’s hope he has got his strategy right because the world needs Nothing. Irrespective of whether Phone 1 succeeds or people see through it, rest assured Pei will put in his all because he has his reputation at stake.