London-based consumer technology company Nothing recently celebrated one year of its existence with its founder Carl Pei using the occasion to thank his team and call out rivals who created hurdles in their journey. Now we hear that the brand has five products in development, of which one could launch as early as in December.
These details were revealed by none other than Manu Sharma, vice president and general manager of Nothing India. In a conversation reported by India Today, he said the company had five products under various stages of development and one of them could well be launched before the end of 2021.
Last week, the tech entrepreneur took to his blog to congratulate his team for a year's hard work with a warning that things could get sticky. While crediting his team for managing deliveries during the global lockdown, Carl Pei accused a major incumbent of blocking the company's access to the supply chain. Of course, he did not mention any names, as is wont in this competitive industry.
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The likely product range
Though Sharma did not reveal the products or the categories that they belong to we can safely speculate that one of them could be a smartphone. The moment Carl Pei invested in acquiring the rights of a defunct brand called Essential.
There have been rumours that Nothing could be launching a power bank this year and a smartphone in the first quarter of 2022. There could also be products in the lifestyle segment of the consumer tech industry, though company officials have, as always been tight-lipped about their plans.
However, one must factor in the delays that Nothing faced ahead of the launch of its first product which Carl Pei had teased wireless earbuds and smart home devices way back in February. The Nothing Ear 1 was slated to launch in June, but eventually landed a month later.
In its first year, Nothing TWS received and shared some delivery numbers. Carl Pei said the company had received 320K orders of which 180K had been shipped with the supply chain continuing to catch up with the expected demand of 600K pieces.
The story behind Essential is what lends credibility to the talk of Nothing readying as many as five new products. The brand was owned by Andy Rubin, the creator of Android and reports suggested that Nothing had started discussions way back in November of last year to acquire it. In fact Carl Pei himself had revealed that the deal got Nothing the trademarks that Essential was holding.
Essential had launched one smartphone but teased quite a few other products like it’s second smartphone PH-2, a smart home hub & speaker and a phone with a crazily narrow form factor before being abruptly shut down. During its brief lifetime, Essential also acquired and later sold Newton, the smart clutter-free mailbox.
Snap to the current, while Nothing now owns all the trademark and logos Essential, it is it's not clear if the patents owned by Essential will get transferred as well.
Readers many also recall that Andy Ruben faced a cease and desist order from South Korean mobile phone accessory maker Spigen over brand infringements in 2017 as the company claimed trademark of the word Essential. It had launched headphones, chargers and battery park with that name.
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