British tech company Nothing plans to launch a new smartphone in the United States to compete directly with Apple’s iPhone, according to a new report.
In an interview with CNBC, Nothing CEO Carl Pei said the startup is in “early conversations” with telecom carriers about launching a new phone in the U.S., but he didn’t name any carriers.
Nothing launched the Nothing Phone(1) smartphone in July in more than 40 markets around the world, including countries in the United Kingdom, Japan, India and continental Europe. At the time, the company said it had no plans for a broad release of the Nothing Phone(1) in the U.S.
“The reason we didn’t release it in the U.S. was that a lot of additional technical support was needed to support all the carriers and the unique customizations they needed to make on top of Android,” Carl Pei explained in an interview. “We didn’t feel we were ready for that before. Now we’re in discussions with some carriers in the U.S. and may launch a future product there.”
Carl Pei also acknowledged that it won’t be easy for Nothing to compete with Apple on U.S. turf. “Android is facing challenges and Apple iOS is becoming more and more dominant. They have a strong monopoly on iMessage and AirDrop, especially in the Z generation, so that’s a growing concern for us.”
“There may come a time when Apple has 80 percent of the entire smartphone market, and that won’t leave enough room for Android-based manufacturers to stay afloat.”
Nothing has sold more than 1 million products worldwide to date, with 600,000 sets of its Nothing Ear (1) headphones sold and 500,000 units of the Nothing Phone (1) shipped.
Nothing expects its revenue to jump more than tenfold by 2022 — from $20 million (about 140 million yuan) in 2021 to $250 million (about 1.752 billion yuan) this year. However, the company is still in the red, which Carl Pei says is due in part to foreign currency exchange movements.
“We pay a lot of our COGS (cost of goods sold) in dollars, but we make money in pounds, euros, Indian rupees — so everything is devalued against the dollar. Our goal is to be profitable by 2024.”
