Nothing Confirms Phone (1) Will Not Be Coming to US
It looks like Americans and Canadians are getting ... nothing.
Carl Pei's buzzy phone firm, which he says will be a top alternative to Apple's iPhone, will skip North America for its phone release on July 12, the company confirmed to PCMag.
The problem was first noticed by veteran leaker Evan Blass. Nothing has a list of supported wireless carriers, and there are no US or Canadian carriers on it.
Nothing said you can try to use the Phone (1) in the US, but it may not work well. It will have "unpredictable" coverage on T-Mobile, have no voice-over-4G on AT&T and no service on Verizon at all.
In a statement the company explained:
"While we’d love to bring phone (1) to the entire community around the world, we're focusing on home markets, including the UK and Europe, where we have strong partnerships with leading local carriers. It takes a lot to launch a smartphone as you know, from ensuring the handset is supported by the country’s cellular technologies to carrier partnerships and local regulation, and as we're still a young brand we need to be strategic about it."
Reading between the lines here, it looks like Nothing just couldn't come to a deal to get the phone cleared by US carriers - or it couldn't afford their costly approval processes.
Don't despair, though, as there is hope for the future:
"We have big plans to launch a U.S. supported smartphone in the future. For now, a limited number of our private community investors in the U.S. will be able to get their hands on phone (1) through a closed beta program. In the meantime, if readers really want phone (1) to be available in the US as soon as possible, they should call their carrier to let them know about us."
Carl Pei is best known for being the co-founder of
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