Nothing’s first phone was great for one thing. It was bringing a little excitement to the stable world of smartphones. Shipments have stagnated, slowed and contracted over the past few years and are now at their lowest numbers in about a decade.
The Phone (1) wasn’t a revolution, but it was certainly a breath of fresh air after dealing with incremental upgrades from the same core player. But potential US consumers were out of luck — at least until the London-based company opened things up a bit through a recent beta program.
The device’s wider availability may never come here in the US, but its sequel has a firm eye on the world’s third-largest market. It’s notoriously difficult, but its size alone is an important market. In a recent interview, founder Carl Pei said the country will be a prime target when his Nothing Phone (2) launches at the end of the year.
The company hasn’t revealed much about its upcoming phones at this time, but executives said Nothing’s earbuds acted as a kind of test balloon for potential statewide expansion. rice field.
“The US market is a big country, so I’m really excited about it,” he explained. “If you look at our earbud sales, about a third comes from the US. By not launching a phone in the US, he could be leaving a third of the sales volume on the table. I have.”
“The US is a major priority for 2023,” Pei told TechCrunch. “We have put together a team that we believe will provide a fast and smooth OS experience that is lacking in the current smartphone industry. We anticipate that nothing in the sea of the same will not only fill the gap, but offer consumers true choice.”
The broader question is whether the market lull works as a net plus or minus for Nothing’s ambitions. The slowdown may have left a hole in a long-saturated category, but whether the slowdown was temporary or just beginning, or whether consumers stopped buying phones at previous rates. We don’t know yet. Economic factors have their ups and downs, but even before the current situation, things looked listless for smartphone makers.
I look forward to continuing the conversation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month.
