Nothing Again
The smartphone market is highly competitive to say the least, and both small and large marketing departments are constantly challenged to find ways in which to differentiate their products and make them more appealing to the buying public. In some cases this can be a sleek or fancy new design, in others leading technology, and finally in some, the wedding cake approach, tier after tier of extra features that are meant to overwhelm the user with the phone’s ability to run almost every aspect of life. As in all things CE this works in cycles, with categories like multiple cameras, higher pixel displays, or faster charging all taking p[precedent for a period of time only to fall prey to consumer ennui after they become commonplace, so every once and a while a brand, in this case a new brand, decided to try to simplify and return to basics, or so the copy says.
Nothing (pvt) Technology was formed in 2021 (we noted same in our 03/25/22 note) by Carl Pei, the founder of Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus (pvt) and added a number of well-known investors from other successful CE companies (all of whom are prominently shown on the company website) and released an earbud product in July. A few days before our earlier note the company announced its intent to release a smartphone with a simplified OS on top of Android and in June of this year began taking pre-orders for the phone which had been promised for the summer of this year, with 100,000 pre-orders said to be signed up.
In a ½ hour event the phone was announced under the concept that it was designed with ‘less distractions. More Soul and pure instinct’, with a self-effacing video that describes how the inventors were imbued with the idea of removing the barriers between technology and people by eliminating silly product names and tech-speak, leaving just artistry, passion, and trust. What came out was a phone that looks a bit different in that it is made with clear glass, allowing the insides to be exposed, and uses ‘Glyphs’, essentially LED lights, to notify users of calls or other functions if sounds are turned off. While flashing lights in someone’s pocket might play well at meetings or in movie theaters (remember those?), LED lights do seem to be a way to attract the attention of young buyers, likely an outgrowth of in vitro disco hopping by their parents.
We compared the feature set against the Apple (AAPL) iPhone SE and the Samsung (005930.KS) Galaxy A53, as both are popular mid-range priced smartphones. As far as we can see, at least from a hardware standpoint, the Nothing phone is about what might expect from a manufacturer trying to compete with a wide variety of $250 to $500 smartphones that was looking to add a bit of pizazz to their marketing campaign and as we have yet to see the actual phone or the OS we cannot yet evaluate how well it interfaces with other CE products (both Android and iOS) as it was originally touted, so we reserve full evaluation to a later date . We do expect lots of excitement from fanboys, who will see the pictures of Twitch (AMZN) and Reddit (pvt) founders on the site and buy the phone regardless of how it functions or how practical it is, and some who will appreciate the odd-ball features, but as to sustainability, the company will have to sustain the flashing light mantra going forward or continue to find other shiny objects to attract the attention of younger smartphone buyers when there are over 100 brands and thousands of models to choose from.
Nothing (pvt) Technology was formed in 2021 (we noted same in our 03/25/22 note) by Carl Pei, the founder of Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus (pvt) and added a number of well-known investors from other successful CE companies (all of whom are prominently shown on the company website) and released an earbud product in July. A few days before our earlier note the company announced its intent to release a smartphone with a simplified OS on top of Android and in June of this year began taking pre-orders for the phone which had been promised for the summer of this year, with 100,000 pre-orders said to be signed up.
In a ½ hour event the phone was announced under the concept that it was designed with ‘less distractions. More Soul and pure instinct’, with a self-effacing video that describes how the inventors were imbued with the idea of removing the barriers between technology and people by eliminating silly product names and tech-speak, leaving just artistry, passion, and trust. What came out was a phone that looks a bit different in that it is made with clear glass, allowing the insides to be exposed, and uses ‘Glyphs’, essentially LED lights, to notify users of calls or other functions if sounds are turned off. While flashing lights in someone’s pocket might play well at meetings or in movie theaters (remember those?), LED lights do seem to be a way to attract the attention of young buyers, likely an outgrowth of in vitro disco hopping by their parents.
We compared the feature set against the Apple (AAPL) iPhone SE and the Samsung (005930.KS) Galaxy A53, as both are popular mid-range priced smartphones. As far as we can see, at least from a hardware standpoint, the Nothing phone is about what might expect from a manufacturer trying to compete with a wide variety of $250 to $500 smartphones that was looking to add a bit of pizazz to their marketing campaign and as we have yet to see the actual phone or the OS we cannot yet evaluate how well it interfaces with other CE products (both Android and iOS) as it was originally touted, so we reserve full evaluation to a later date . We do expect lots of excitement from fanboys, who will see the pictures of Twitch (AMZN) and Reddit (pvt) founders on the site and buy the phone regardless of how it functions or how practical it is, and some who will appreciate the odd-ball features, but as to sustainability, the company will have to sustain the flashing light mantra going forward or continue to find other shiny objects to attract the attention of younger smartphone buyers when there are over 100 brands and thousands of models to choose from.
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