In an interview on Inverse, Carl Pei, the CEO and co-founder of Nothing, the fashionista’s mobile phone of choice, confirmed that the Nothing Phone (2) was going to make the US its number one priority. Just to refresh your memory, Pei, who was a founder of OnePlus, raised more than $200 million to launch the company with a beta subscription product, the Nothing Phone (1). The back of the smartphone is transparent, showing a wireless recharging coil, and it uses what a glyph interface. Backers include Alphabet’s venture capital arm, EQT Ventures and former Apple designer Tony Fadell.
Back then, Bob Raikes had called the design of the Nothing Phone (1) thoughtful and bound to get attention, but was not sure that was enough to drive the numbers the company would need to succeed. Pei says that in its first year the company made over $20 million and over $200 million in 2022 so, they seem to be scaling up.
On the other hand, the interview doesn’t read like total commitment to the next stage, and its a little bit too laudatory to be that objective. This sound like a product that pitches itself well to a target audience of young and fashionable users, but that’s a world of difference to being able to compete in a market full of much bigger companies with much bigger resources. So, we will see if something can come of Nothing. But a transparent phone, what’s not to love if you’re in the display business.
