“The reason why we didn’t launch in the US is because you need a lot of additional technical support to support all the carriers and their unique customizations that they need to make on top of Android,” reads a transcript of the interview with CNBC. “We felt that we weren’t ready before.” “Now we are in discussions with some carriers in the US to potentially launch a future product there.”
The undisclosed new product was initially thought to be the Nothing Phone (2), which unsurprisingly got people excited, and Pei needed to clarify some things briefly after the interview. The Chinese entrepreneur tweeted: “Phone (2) isn’t launching anytime soon.” “We’re focused on doing a few things well and won’t churn out dozens of products a year like many others.”
The remarks above point toward the original Nothing Phone (1) being brought to the US, instead of a brand-new product. The company sold over 500,000 units of the model globally, and another 600,000 of its Nothing Ear (1) earbuds. In comparison, Apple shipped more than 50 million iPhones during the third quarter of 2022 alone.
Despite the huge gap, Nothing expects its revenues to jump more than tenfold in 2022—from about $20 million in 2021 to an estimated $250 million this year, according to figures shared with CNBC. In a recent video, Carl Pei shared that the margin at which the company sells its Nothing (1) model is zero, meaning it doesn’t bring in any profits.
