Phone (2) Isn’t Launching Anytime Soon: Carl Pei, a co-founder of OnePlus, also started a firm that makes a mid-range smartphone called the Nothing Phone (1).
For the same reason, that new smartphone makers struggle to get into the US market without a significant partner like a carrier, the Nothing Phone (1) would not be made accessible in the US upon its release. This may soon change, as suggested in an interview.
According to Pei, there is indeed “in discussions with some carriers in the US to potentially launch a future product there,”and while he didn’t come right out and say it was a smartphone, the fact that he was talking about taking on Apple in the United States’ Gen Z market strongly suggests as much.“There’s a challenge with Android where iOS is just becoming more and more dominant,”elucidates Pei. “They have a very strong lock-in with iMessage, with AirDrop, especially among Gen Z. So that’s a rising concern for me.”
Pei asserts “It’s definitely a market where there’s already a lot of interest for our products. And if we launch our smartphones there, I’m sure we could obtain significant growth.”As for Nothing, the company anticipates a massive increase in sales in 2022, from $20 million in 2021 to $250 million in 2022. The workforce has grown from the original 200 to more than 400 due to the same lack of progress.
The goal is to be profitable in 2024 […] We are not profitable right now. And this year was made even harder due to the foreign currency exchange. We pay a lot of our COGS in USD but we make money in Pounds, Euros, in Indian Rupees – so everything devalued against the USD.” – Carl Pei
Phone (2) Isn’t Launching Anytime Soon
Within hours after the interview’s publication, Carl Pei verified on Twitter that the “Phone (2) isn’t launching anytime soon,” also, that “we won’t churn out dozens of products a year like many others.”
Phone (2) isn’t launching anytime soon. We’re focused on doing a few things well, and won’t churn out dozens of products a year like many others.
Phone (1) is our main focus. We’re cooking something really great in terms of software, Android 13 and beyond.
