Nothing wants to release Phone (2) later this year and wants to focus more on software
Nothing is working on a Phone (2), which should be released later this year. The company says that this new phone should be “more premium” than the Phone (1), but does not want to go into details yet. CEO Carl Pei does say that there will be more focus on software.
“We are developing a smartphone that is more premium than the (1) and where software is a big focus area for us”, says Pei to Inverse. What Pei means by ‘more premium’ is not immediately clear. For example, he does not want to say whether the (2) gets a better SOC than the midrange SOC from the (1).
Pei does say that the second phone’s software and operating system should feel faster and smoother than the (1) does. In our review, we wrote that there were minor flaws in the (1’s) interface, but Pei said that was due to the fact that much of the software development work was done by outside companies. Back then, Nothing was smaller than it is now, with five developers. Now there are about a hundred software developers. He does say that the improvement will come step by step and that his ‘vision’ will not be immediately clear.
The (2) should also appear in the United States, which was not possible with the (1). This was not possible because there were too few employees and resources to obtain the necessary certifications. Now this would work, because the company has more employees: four hundred compared to two hundred in 2021, and is also larger. Sales have increased eightfold from $24 million to $200 million in one year.
Nothing has delivered a million products to date, Pei says in the interview. In addition to the (1), Nothing sells the ear (1) and the Ear (stick). Pei previously co-founded OnePlus.