Nothing Plans to Launch Smartphone in US to Take on Apple's iPhone

[4tune8chance]

UK-based tech company Nothing plans to launch a smartphone in the US to directly compete with Apple's iPhone, according to a new report out today.

In an interview with CNBC, Nothing CEO Carl Pei said the startup is in "early conversations" with American cellular carriers about launching a new phone in the US, but he stopped short of naming any of the carriers or the phone model.

Nothing in July launched its Phone 1 smartphone in over 40 markets, including the UK, Japan, India, and countries in mainland Europe. At the time, the company said it had no plans for a widespread release of the Phone 1 in the US.
Pei also acknowledged that it won't be easy for his company to compete with Apple on its own turf. "There's a challenge with Android where iOS is just becoming more and more dominant. They have very strong lock-in with iMessage, with AirDrop, especially among Gen Z. So that's a rising concern for me," he said.

"There might be a time where Apple is like 80% of the overall market and that just does not leave enough space for Android-based manufacturers to keep playing," Pei added.

Nothing has sold over 1 million products to date globally, with its Ear (1) earbuds selling 600,000 units and the Phone (1) reaching 500,000 shipments.

The company expects its revenues to jump more than tenfold in 2022 — from about $20 million in 2021 to an estimated $250 million this year, according to figures shared with CNBC. However, the firm is still losing money, which Pei says is partly due to the foreign currency exchange.

"We pay a lot of our COGS [cost of goods sold] in USD but we make money in pounds, in euros, in Indian rupees — so everything devalued against the USD," said Pei. "The goal is to be profitable in 2024."

Update 12/5: "Phone (2) isn't launching anytime soon," Pei said in a tweet, shortly after this article was published. "We're focused on doing a few things well, and won't churn out dozens of products a year like many others." Pei's comments suggest that if the "future product" planned for the US market is the Nothing Phone 2, it won't arrive for a while yet.

Article Link: Nothing Plans to Launch Smartphone in US to Take on Apple's iPhone

There is a truism for success in life, evolution, business etc, and that is, be better or be first.

 

[jon3543]

Hard to believe this story made the cut. Was it just to give people something to mock in light of Apple's current inability to meet demand?

 

[rKunda]

Honestly at this point, all makers make good phones. I just don’t care about specs much. I get excited about the hype around new released but really don’t care and would be jelly with the base model vs the pro, though info for pro.

It’s the ecosystem. If you wanted to sell me. $50 android that is 50x better than an iPhone I’m still out.

 

[CubeHacker]

Now won't that be a sight?

Yeah, a horrible sight. Competition is good. I hope this never happens.

 

[gund1234]

I expect this will be a big “nothing burger” 😂

Seriously does anyone think this is going to actually compete with the iPhone?

if they think transparent glass in the back with LLED is going to attract customers, then probably no, this will fade away soon.

 

[gund1234]

I must say it seems you get quite a lot for the money with the Phone 1. A colleague has it and we were discussing how much that 120 Hz display does for the user experience, something you have to jump to iPhone 14 Pro to get as the non-pro iPhone 14 doesn't have it.

Battery life wise I think it's not as good as the iPhone and the performance isn't even close (looking at benchmarks), but I'm not sure how much that is noticeable in practice – seems to be pretty quick to me. Review here:

Nothing Phone 1 review: A bright debut

Nothing's first phone has a flashy look but a modest spec sheet and low asking price. Find out more in this Nothing Phone 1 review.

www.androidauthority.com

i don't care about 120 Hz, i don't see any difference, i would buy a iPhone mini with 60 Hz, LED/LCD display, sell it for cheaper price i am in.

 

[gund1234]

Except for all the Apple apps that many never use.

Delete them, Apple will let you delete most of them, unlike others.

 

[gund1234]

Well this depends on how you personally define bloatware. I think many first party apps (yes even those by Apple and Google) meet my criteria to be considered bloatware.

Apps I never use and for some reason cannot remove from my phone.

Apple will let you delete most of the default apps.

 

[gund1234]

If Apple doesn’t readjust the recent lurch towards advertisements and generally taking its user base for granted, I can see myself bailing out of the ecosystem I’ve so lovingly been a member of since 2002. I and many others choose Apple products because we figure they’re worth their premium prices. Take that away and we’re just a diaspora looking for a new destination that doesn’t suck.

i am with you, Apple need to be careful here, they may make more money from advertisements but they may loose lot of customers, is it worth it ?

 

[gund1234]

The phone market is in desperate need of more competition so I welcome a new brand. Hopefully they are able to produce a quality product at a competitive price and can gain some market share. Frankly, phone have gotten stale and I‘ll be glad to see any new take on this now staid market.

Phone market is over crowded.

 

[gund1234]

To be fair Carl, or his real name Pei Yu, founded OnePlus. That used to be great for Android when they first came out. But roll forward and he sold out, left and is just replaying 12 year old tricks like it is something new and still relevant...

did they sell OnePlus ? i thought OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo were all the same company from the beginning.

 

[gund1234]

All these people bashing this company -- what are you on about?

Toyota is the highest selling car manufacturer in the world. Should Honda, Nissan, Hyundai just give up and stop making cars?

Apple sells a crap ton of phones (the minority in the grand scheme of things, by a LOT; but I digress). So now, should Nothing just give up? Should Samsung? You're being ridiculous.

that's not what people are saying, they are saying this phone will compete with other android phones not iPhone, and this phone doesn't differentiate much from other android phones.

 

[gund1234]

I still don’t get the fascination with this phone.

They paid lot of money to youtube influencers, that's the trick.

 

[svish]

Launching in US will be good. But have to wait and see whether they will be successful. With Apple and Samsung, don’t know how much market share they will be able to grab.

 

[max2]

Nothing is nothing.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

did they sell OnePlus ? i thought OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo were all the same company from the beginning.

Different legal entities, but a bit incestious as the co-founder Pete Lay used to work for Oppo (group level). And Oppo was their main investor. And don't get me wrong, their Android clones with cyanogenmod were decent phones. Nowadays Oppo fully owns OnePlus. And now they all use OxygenOS. Still a clone of Android.

All just more of the same, yet another Android clone. There have been and gone so many of them. Nothing unique, just copycats...

 

[BipedalOS]

No one will remember Nothing.

 

[Razorpit]

I’ll be launching my ‘A Lil More Than Nothing Phone’ at the beginning of the year.

It’s basically a flip phone with an LED strip wrapped around it. Must be plugged in at all times.

And with even less support than your average Samsung/Pixel/{insert other wanna be here}. Nothing managed a trifecta of nothing. 😄

For some of those you're now clumping the API layer and the app into the same bucket. You can remove the messages app, you can't remove the API it interfaces with because third party messaging etc may still have to interact with the messaging APIs. That's not bloatware, it's part of the provided standard API that needs to stay there to not break compatibility.

Great point. Maybe you can help me with a problem I've been having. I have a machine that never leaves my home. How do I remove the time-zones bloatware? I'm sure that feature is eating up multiple bytes of useful storage space.

 

[Beautyspin]

One person’s “bloatware” is another’s crucial feature. I use Maps every single day. You can also delete any app you don’t care to use.

Maybe. I was replying to the poster who said Samsung has bloatware. Every phone has some bloatware. Even iPhone. No need to be sarcastic about Samsung.

 

[Beautyspin]

Maps is now just as good as the Google maps.

Not in India.

 

[Beautyspin]

They're not competing directly a


So just remove the Apple apps you don't want.

I was replying to somebody who said Samsung has bloatware. So does iPhone, based on what you consider as bloatware.

 

[Beautyspin]

Nope is very handy and it is needed in a smartphone one, then you can download another map service, but Apple Maps is getting better and better. Bloeatware is all the crap that comes pre installed in Android phone like parallel App Store, ringtones apps, microsoft apps, sometime carrier apps... it is terrible.

There are no ringtone apps, no parallel app stores, Microsoft apps and carrier apps preinstalled on my Samsung phone. However, Apple maps is preinstalled on my iPhone.

 

[Beautyspin]

But you can now delete those 🤷🏼‍♂️

I was replying to somebody who said Samsung has bloatware. So does iPhone, based on what you consider as bloatware.

 

[Beautyspin]

There’s a common definition and then a personal definition. First party useful apps where there was no enticement of money were never considered bloatware in the common definition.

"Useful" is the operative word. Apple Maps is useless for me in India. So are Pages, Keynote, and others. So, for me, they are bloatware.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

There are no ringtone apps, no parallel app stores, Microsoft apps and carrier apps preinstalled on my Samsung phone. However, Apple maps is preinstalled on my iPhone.

That doesn’t make it bloatware. Bloatware is third party preinstalled apps that you wouldn’t have installed yourself. Not often used as a term for the software by the manufacturer. You know good old MacAfee antivirus, different browsers, toolbars, games.

You got to understand where it came from if you want to use those terms in current context.