Audio device maker Nothing to foray into smartphone business

Consumer technology company Nothing will expand its product portfolio beyond the audio segment, starting with its foray into the smartphone business in the third quarter of this year, a senior official of the company said on Wednesday.

Nothing India Vice-President and General Manager Manu Sharma told PTI that the smartphone industry is sleeping and has become very predictable. “Our strategy is to have a large base of customers using Nothing products, and the heartbeat of that is smartphone. If you look at the smartphone industry, it is sleeping. It is not exciting. It’s very predictable. We want to bring back optimism in terms of our approach, OS, ecosystem experience,” Sharma said.

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Led by OnePlus smart devices company co-founder Carl Pei, Nothing is developing its own operating system (OS) for Phone (1), which will be built using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile platform. Pei had left OnePlus in October 2020. Sharma said that Nothing will expand the product portfolio to set up a full device ecosystem. Pei, while unveiling the company’s road map during a virtual conference, said that Nothing is looking to create an ecosystem of connected products, which will be an alternative option to Apple ecosystem but it will be open for other brands as well.

“Phone (1) will come with 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security updates,” Pei said. At present, Nothing sells wireless stereo devices across 40 countries and claims to have supplied about half a million units. “Smartphones are one product that we are going to be launching in the third quarter of this year in India alongside the global launch,” Sharma said, adding that details of the devices will be disclosed later.

Nothing is a privately held company with backing from GV (formerly Google Ventures), EQT Ventures, C Ventures and other private investors, including Tony Fadell (Principal at Future Shape & inventor of the iPod), Casey Neistat (YouTube personality and co-founder of Beme), Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch) and Steve Huffman (co-founder and CEO of Reddit).