In an interview with “Inverse”, the CEO of Nothing Carl Pei confirmed the upcoming launch of the Nothing phone (2), a smartphone that will be “more premium” and whose sales pitch will always be software-oriented.
Nearly two months ago, Nothing CEO (and OnePlus co-founder) Carl Pei announced that Nothing was going to focus on software follow-up to the Nothing phone (1) rather than committing to a phone (2). He goes back on his statements by claiming that a Nothing phone (2) is indeed in the cards and that it will be launched this year, probably a year after the release of Nothing phone (1). In an interview with Reversehe also specifies that he wants to make the United States the priority in terms of the market.
The Nothing phone (2) also wants to stand out
Carl Pei does not give a lot of details about Nothing’s next smartphone. He states that ” store traffic from people looking for new phones has not increased » and that the (American) market only offers « little variety in terms of smartphones “. Nothing would like to continue to enter the race by surprising consumers while offering good value for money.
He adds that the phone (2) will come out “ later this year » and that it will be more upscale than the previous one. However, he does not qualify the smartphone asflagship: according to him, the phone (1) was already one. For Carl Pei, his two models will be flagships.
He also said: “I tweeted before that we weren’t going to launch [le phone (2)] anytime soon. And that doesn’t mean we’ll never launch it; I just got sick of people releasing phones every two months and not supporting them. What I was trying to say is that we need to release the products at a healthy cadence and that we are able to support the product on the software side and continue to improve it.»
Nothing is a brand that is growing strongly, especially across the Atlantic
Answering questions from journalist Raymond Wong, Carl Pei tells us that his brand achieved a turnover in 2022 ten times higher than in 2021, which represents more than 200 million US dollars. The CEO specifies that he has already shipped more than a million products, which also includes the Nothing ear (1) and Nothing ear (Stick) wireless headphones.
For the brand, this has validated the fact that its products are in demand and it has given it more and more weight with component suppliers and factories. The internal teams also seem to follow since the company has gone from 200 employees to 400 today, in the areas of “carrier certification, quality assurance, marketing, retail logistics, etc.» There are also many more people affected on the software, going from five at the launch of the phone (1) to almost 100 today. Carl Pei’s objective is to offer a “really fast and smooth Android-based experience“. He clarifies that the beta version of Nothing OS based on Android 13 is “entirely made in-house“.
Finally, he affirmed his ambition to develop Nothing stores in the United States gradually. The brand’s first store opened in December in London’s Soho last month, but the US customer base is the target the company wants to focus on.
What we can imagine from Nothing phone (2)
Like Raymond Wond ofReverse, we imagine a return of the famous Glyph of phone (1), the customizable LED system on the back. It could also benefit from an open API for developers who wish to use it in their Android applications. The design was a strength of the model we know, with a nice transparent back and a front without chin, we can therefore think that Nothing repeats the experience.
On the component side, if Carl Pei speaks of a model “premiumis that there could also be changes at the hardware level (or just a joke about the fact that he considers the phone (1) to be a premium smartphone already). If we look at the elements that could evolve, we can exclude the screen, which is already relatively good, with Oled in 120 Hz. The most interesting is undoubtedly at the level of the SoC. We can dream and tell ourselves that with a price around 800 euros, Nothing manages to offer the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 from Qualcomm, which should arrive on the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra very soon. If this is not the case, the manufacturer could fall back on the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
Rumors further report that Nothing may be launching a new brand dubbed “Particles by XO», with wireless headphones.
The Nothing phone (1) was released a few days ago and brings its share of new features. This is an opportunity to discover this very special smartphone and its innards through tips to know to take advantage…
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