“Maybe I was wrong. Everybody makes mistakes,” said Nothing CEO and founder Carl Pei. What he is referring to is the naming scheme that his firm employed with the Nothing Ear earbuds. The first Nothing earbuds were called the Nothing Ear followed by the Nothing Ear 2, the Nothing Ear once again, and the Nothing Ear (a). As Pei notes in a video mea culpa that can be found on YouTube, this was not a good decision.
“The biggest problem that this caused is when people are searching online to buy the product they can’t find the right product which hurts our business.” Pei says that this is the main reason why, looking back, it is apparent that a better naming scheme should have been employed for these products.
Is there a reason why the NothingOS interface resembles the interface used on OnePlus’ OxygenOS?
Pei also responded to complaints from some YouTube reviewers who said that Nothing OS resembles the OxygenOS interface used by OnePlus. Pei, famously, teamed up with Pete Lau to build OnePlus and Carl says that Nothing OS wasn’t inspired by OxygenOS, it was just that many of the same people who developed OxygenOS were behind the creation of NothingOS. Features and elements of Nothing OS were added to the platform not because they copied OxygenOS, but “it just what we felt was good,” Pei said.
Responding to criticism that Nothing Phones don’t really deliver value, Pei points out that Nothing’s competitors build 50 to 100 million phones a year and Nothing just passed the one million a year mark. As a result, component costs are spread out over fewer devices which means that Pei’s company has to pay more for parts which, as the executive points out, hinders growth. “We have to grow into one of the biggest smartphone companies in the world we can more aggressively pursue this other vision.”
There have been complaints about the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth boxes in Quick Settings on NothingOS 2.6 taking up too much space. Another issue is the brightness control which is an unmarked slider that looks more like a divider than an element you would use to control how the screen looks. These problems were taken care of in Nothing 3.0.
Pei has an interesting take on the absence of chargers in new smartphone boxes. While this would save the consumer some money by using older charging gear he or she might already own, Carl wonders about a younger Nothing Phone buyer who might be purchasing his first smartphone. This buyer doesn’t own a compatible charger and would have to buy one. The executive suggests a soft bundle meaning that a Nothing Phone buyer could add the purchase of a charger to the purchase of his/her phone, but at a reduced price.
What is Carl’s take on building a budget device like the CMF Phone 1?
Responding to Marques Brownlee’s (MKBHD) complement that using the budget-priced CMF Phone 1 gave him the same experience as using the premium Nothing Phone, Pei explained his thoughts on offering a budget model. “Even if it’s a more budget-focused product it still has to be the best product within that price range…no matter what product we put out there, we want to invest the utmost care and love to try and make it as good as possible.” And those are certainly words to live by.
The CMF Phone 1 is Nothing’s entry into the world of budget-priced handsets. | Image credit-Nothing
Pei also ranswered questions about why Nothing didn’t use a removable battery for its phones. The CEO explained that with the lithium-ion batteries that are used on most handsets, one slight dent can result in an explosion and the reinforcements needed for protection would add girth to the device and the battery capacity would have to be reduced. However, he says that the Digital Markets Act in the EU will soon force phone manufacturers to feature removable battery cells so this is an issue that all phone manufacturers will have to address soon.
Pei has often been compared to the late Steve Jobs in the way he focuses on the design of his products and how he built the Nothing brand. It is always interesting to hear him explain some of the decisions made inside Nothing. And, as always, I must admit that he has the best “X” user name of all time: @getpeid.
