Carl Pei's Nothing may surprise us with at least one new product very soon...
Back in 2020, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei parted with the company to do... something else. In 2021, he announced his new venture — Nothing. A company whose name is a bottomless well for puns and dad jokes (and Nothing's Twitter account makes use of those on a weekly basis). In reality, Nothing's message is that modern technology should be smart, simple, and seamlessly blend with our daily lives — it should feel like air, like nothing at all, yet provide tremendous value. Hence the name... Nothing.
Anyway, the company states that it saw the growing trend of tech products being stale, uninspired, and not exciting, which is why it chose that its first product would be a pair of wireless earbuds that kind of look like AirPods. Snarky jokes aside, the Nothing Ear (1) earbuds have a cool transparent stem design, which lets you peek into the buds and see all of the cool tech inside. Everything is arranged all straight and pretty and I'd be lying if I said it isn't cool to get that "peek inside".
But what's next? It's been more than half a year since the Nothing Ear (1) launched and the company is being mum on its plans for future products. Though, it did let out that it's "rapidly expanding its product pipelines" and has a whopping five new devices in the works. What types of devices? Absolutely no idea. Guerilla marketing and piquing interest through mystery is a strategy that Mr. Pei is well versed in and it also works for the startup that is Nothing.
Well, the company's official Twitter account just teased us that... something is coming.
March is going to be fun.
— Nothing (@nothing) February 28, 2022
What could that mean? We doubt the Nothing Twitter account is super excited about MWC, which is currently ongoing and about to end in a couple of days. More likely, we are going to finally get news about Nothing's next product some time this March. Well, look at that — it's March 1st already. Let's get this going, Nothing!
What do we know about Nothing's next product?
Well... nothing. But! It's a safe bet that it will also feature some sort of transparent design. How do I know this? Thanks to this tongue-in-cheek tweet, of course:
Who wants a sneak peak at what's next? pic.twitter.com/W8ur7XWF4l
— Nothing (@nothing) February 16, 2022
Is Nothing making a smartphone?
That is a really good question. Upon leaving OnePlus, Carl Pei kind of made it sound like he was done with smartphones and was much more interested in looking into other products — improving other types of devices or inventing entirely new concepts that would set Nothing apart and propel the smart Internet of Things industry further.
On the other hand, it's kind of hard to believe that a company that seeks to be so tied into the smart-life wouldn't take a jab at the smartphone product. In fact, it sounds like Nothing could be looking to set up an ecosystem of their own here. Five products in the pipeline? Surely they can't be completely autonomous pieces.
And then, there's the leakster that said that Nothing is working on both a smartphone and powerbank, allegedly called Nothing Phone (1) and Nothing Power (1). The same report claimed they are both slated for release in 2022. Ambitious!
I can definitely see a transparent powerbank being cool. And hey, a transparent smartphone? What tech geek wouldn't love to see that?
OK, suppose that's true. That's two of the "five devices" out of the way. What else could there be? A smartwatch? Smart speaker? Possibly, but does a tech startup have the manpower and the access to production that would be able to design, build, and churn out so many different devices in such a short period of time after the company started? I am quite skeptical here — not that Nothing wouldn't be able to produce these different devices, I just wouldn't hold my breath to see the full 5 launched this or next year. I'd be happy of we get 2 more this year, actually.
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