Nothing Says Its 'Phone 1' Will Be a Top Alternative to Apple's iPhone
Carl Pei isn't afraid to name his enemy. Teasing his startup's first phone today, the Nothing Phone(1), he said he's specifically out to get Apple.
"We're building the most compelling alternative to Apple," he said on a launch livestream. "If you want products that connect and work seamlessly together, the only choice is Apple. As soon as you leave that ecosystem for a Windows PC or an Android phone, it breaks down. There is no alternative to Apple."
One of the founders of Android phone maker OnePlus, Pei left OnePlus in 2020 to start Nothing, which has so far released one product, the well-received Ear(1) earbuds.
Nothing will be the antidote to boring technology, "skepticism [and] apathy," Pei said. It will "bring optimism back so technology can stand for progress again." That's a high bar, but "if we don't try, consumer tech stays stagnant."
As befits any company trying to go by the Apple playbook, the reality distortion field is strong here. David Ruddock, a longtime Android watcher who now works for Esper.io, sees Nothing calling a fight with Apple as a straight-up marketing play.
Nothing's strength will be in integrating different pieces of technology, Pei said, but its plans promise peril. Apple's strength is that it integrates with its own first-party products, or with vendors that pointedly kowtow to Apple. It makes its own chipsets and runs all its own OSes.
Nothing promises a "different and open ecosystem" with "a choice to use your favorite brands instead of being forced into a closed range of products." Samsung and Microsoft haven't been able to make this quite happen with far more resources than Nothing, as they have struggled with the messy roadblocks of dealing with partner software and hardware they
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