The debut of the forthcoming Phone 2 in the US later this year has not been confirmed by Carl Pei. The 2023 flagship, according to the CEO and co-founder, would be “more premium” than the Nothing Phone 1, which deemed to be “an amazing debut” in our review.
Pei revealed a number of details during an interview with Inverse. First, he claims that the US debut of the Ear 1 earphones served as a gauge of US demand. Due to the size of the US market, Pei declared, “We’re incredibly thrilled about it. “If you look at our earbud sales, the US accounts for around one-third. Additionally, we could be passing up a third of the market by not launching our phone in the US. Pei claims that Nothing’s primary focus for this year is the US release of the Phone 2.
Pei contends that dropping smartphone sales show that there is room for innovation in the US market. “From a commercial standpoint, [Apple and Samsung] shouldn’t go really specialised and try something altogether new because they might annoy present users, Smaller businesses like ours can step in at that point and attempt a novel approach. However, it just doesn’t make sense for them to do it. It’s not that we’re smarter or that they can’t. Although stagnation might have contributed, the main causes of the downturn were probably issues with the supply chain, inflation, and an unpredictably fluctuating economy.
According to Pei, bureaucracy was the primary reason Nothing didn’t introduce the Phone 1 in the US. It costs a lot of money for American carriers to require Android manufacturers to comply with various adaptations and preinstalled apps. However, the organisation has leverage due to its quick expansion and shown capacity for volume movement. “You need to engage with the carriers on certification and adopting some of their features into your OS when you develop a smartphone for the US,” he stated. Before, we lacked the resources to do it; now we do According to Pei, Nothing now employs 400 employees, up from 200 in 2021.
Pei gives away few details about the Phone 2, although he suggests that it will have a more advanced design than its predecessor. “Software will be a significant focus area for us as we construct a smartphone that is more upscale than the Nothing Phone 1,” said the developer. He emphasises that the Phone 1 was also a flagship device though. “Over the past seven to nine years, mobile chipsets have significantly advanced. To avoid implying that the Phone 1 wasn’t a flagship, I don’t want to refer to the Phone 2 as a flagship. In terms of the level of care we put into the device within our own line-up of smartphones, the Phone 1 was definitely a flagship. The Phone 2 is a more premium step up as a result, but it is still a flagship just like the Phone 1, which is why I used the word “premium” to describe it instead.
