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Nothing (company)

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Nothing Technology Limited
Company typePrivate limited company
IndustryConsumer electronics
Founded29 October 2020; 4 years ago (2020-10-29)
HeadquartersLondon, England
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Carl Pei (Co-founder & CEO)
Jesper Kouthoofd (Founding partner & CEO of Teenage Engineering)
Tim Holbrow (CFO)
ProductsSmartphones, earphones
BrandsNothing, CMF
Websitewww.nothing.tech

Nothing (stylised in all caps) is a British consumer electronics manufacturer based in London.[1] It was founded by Carl Pei, the co-founder of the Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus. On 25 February 2021, the company announced Teenage Engineering as a founding partner, mainly responsible for the brand's design aesthetic and its products. Investors in the company include Tony Fadell of iPod, YouTube personality Casey Neistat, and GV (formerly Google Ventures).[2] Nothing's first product, "Ear (1)", was launched on 27 July 2021.

History

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On 16 October 2020, Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus, while working at OnePlus alongside Pete Lau, announced his resignation so that he could start a new venture.[3] Pei later raised up to $7 million from multiple investors to start up his venture, including Tony Fadell of iPod, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and YouTuber Casey Neistat.[4]

Pei announced the company, Nothing, on 27 January 2021.[5]

On 15 February 2021, Nothing acquired the Essential Products trademarks and brand nearly a year after the company shut down operations.[6][7]

On 25 February 2021, the company announced its first founding partner, Teenage Engineering, to produce the design aesthetic of the brand and its products.[8]

Nothing announced its first product on 27 July 2021, named the "ear (1)", which are wireless headphones.[9]

On 13 October 2021, the company raised up to $50 million and also announced a partnership with Qualcomm.[10]

On 9 March 2022, the same day that Nothing secured Series B financing, the company announced that it would hold a press conference on 23 March.[11][12] During that event, the company announced its first smartphone, the "phone (1)".[13][14]

On 10 December 2022, Nothing opened its first physical store in London's Soho district.[15]

In February 2023, during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Nothing announced that their next generation of phones would be powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The announcement highlighted the increased power and device price of the next smartphone release.[16]

On 22 March 2023, Nothing announced the release of their second generation "ear (2)" wireless earbuds, which promised support for high-resolution wireless audio, improved battery life, and adaptive active noise control.[17] These were released to mostly positive reviews. Wired praised the detailed sound profile, distinctive design, and voice-assistant interaction, but criticized the treble reproduction, physical controls, and "so-so" noise cancellation.[18] The Verge wrote that, "At $149, the Ear 2 earbuds represent a well-rounded pair of midrange earbuds. They've got all the style of the Ear 1s but without their rough edges."[19]

A budget sub-brand named "CMF by Nothing" was announced in August 2023.[20]

On 17 November 2023, Nothing released a messaging app that promised end-to-end encryption but was storing texts publicly in plaintext. Nothing took the app down within 24 hours.[21]

In April 2024, Nothing released their third generation "Ear" and first generation "Ear (a)" wireless earbuds.The Nothing Ear promises a refined audio experience compared to the previous Ear 2. PCMag wrote that, "The Nothing Ear earphones offer better sound quality, longer battery life, and more Bluetooth codecs than their predecessors while maintaining an elegant, transparent design."[22]

In July 2024, CMF by Nothing announced the "CMF Phone 1", a budget smartphone with wide customizability. It was revealed that manufacturing is happening in India.[23]

Products

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Smartphones

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Phone (1)

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Main article: Nothing Phone 1
Nothing Phone 1

On 23 March 2022, Nothing announced its first smartphone named the "Phone (1)".[24]

The phone runs on an Android-based operating system named Nothing OS and went on sale on 21 July 2022.[24][13][14][25]

In June 2022, Nothing opened an invite-only pre-order for the "Phone (1)", which reached up to 100,000 registrations on the waiting list.[26] The device, which was unveiled on 12 July in London, features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ chipset and transparent design.[27]

Phone (2)

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Main article: Nothing Phone 2

On 11 July 2023, Nothing announced its second smartphone named the "Phone (2)".[28] It was released on 21 July 2023. The software front is covered by Android 13 with Nothing OS 2.0 skin on top. The phone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset.

Phone (2a)

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Main article: Nothing Phone 2a

Nothing announced its budget smartphone, the "Phone (2a)", on 5 March 2024.[29] It came with the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset running Android 14 and Nothing OS 2.5, a 6.7-inch 120-Hz OLED display, and a 5000 mAh battery.[30]

Nothing (2a) surpassed 100,000 units sold in its first day after release.[31]

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, released in 2024, is an upgraded version of the standard Phone (2a) with enhanced features aimed at improving performance, display quality, and photography capabilities. Key upgrades include a MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro processor for smooth multitasking and better gaming performance, achieving impressive benchmark scores compared to its predecessors.

Audio products

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Ear 1

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The Nothing ear (1)

The Nothing Ear 1, stylized as the "ear (1)", is Nothing's first product. Announced on 27 July 2021, the Ear 1 is a set of wireless earbuds. The earbuds can be connected by Bluetooth and have up to 34 hours of battery life when used with the charging case, and up to 5.7 hours of battery life with ANC off; with 24 hours with the case used and up to four hours for the earbuds themselves with ANC on. The earbuds went on sale on 17 August 2021, at $99/£99/€99.[32][33]

A Black version was also announced on 6 December 2021, and went on sale on 13 December. Nothing also announced on that day that the Ear 1 earbuds are now carbon neutral.[34]

On 18 October 2022, Nothing's CEO Carl Pei announced on X that the Ear 1's price will be increased to $149 starting on 26 October 2022 due to an increase in costs.[35]

Ear (stick)

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Ear (stick) is a pair of earbuds Nothing released on 4 November 2022. It is the second part of the Ear family and a lower tier version of Ear (1), and does not include noise cancellation, transparency mode, or wireless charging. Ear (stick) launched at a price of $99.[36][37][38][39]

Ear (2)

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The Nothing ear (2)

In March 2023, Nothing announced the release of their second-generation earbuds, the Nothing Ear (2). These new earphones support the LHDC 5.0 low latency HD audio codec and come equipped with 11.6 mm speakers, similar to its predecessor. The earbuds were launched on 22 March 2023.[40][41][42]

Ear

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Nothing Ear is a 2024 refresh of the Nothing Ear (2), offering improved features over the Nothing Ear (2), particularly in battery life and sound quality.

Ear (a)

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The Nothing ear (a)

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds, introduced as a more budget-friendly option, retain many of the core features of the premium Nothing Ear model, such as active noise cancellation (ANC) and clear sound quality. They use traditional polymer drivers, unlike the pricier ceramic drivers in the main Ear line, but still deliver solid audio performance across a wide range of genres. The Ear (a) also has a longer battery life, achieving about 5.5 hours with ANC on compared to 5.2 hours in the higher-end model. Despite a less powerful chipset, the Ear (a) provides a reliable user experience, offering customizable touch controls, in-ear detection, and similar levels of noise cancellation (up to 45 dB).

Applications

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Nothing Chats

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Nothing Chats was an instant messaging application released by Nothing Technology Limited. The application, in beta on release, was available on Google Play for less than a day in November 2023 before it was pulled by Nothing Technology Limited due to widespread coverage of application's bugs, insecure networking, and unreliability.[43][44]

On 14 November 2023, Nothing announced a new messaging application which would become available on 17 November. The announcement stated that Nothing Chats was developed by company called Sunbird and would have limited compatibility with Apple's iMessage.[45][46][47] Prior to its launch, Android Authority and Ars Technica expressed skepticism regarding the company's claims to use end-to-end encryption, reliability of message delivery and general application security, citing prior experiences with Sunbird. Ars Technica explicitly advised readers against giving their Apple username and password to a company which might not "understand and/or respect the security version of Pandora's box they are opening".[48] On 17 November, shortly after launch, a third-party developer discovered that the app was using a version of a rival open-source project called BlueBubbles but Sunbird failed to procure a TLS certificate so the application was sending users' service credentials via insecure HTTP. The vulnerability could allow a third-party to intercept users' credentials (one at a time) and use them to impersonate the users to read and send messages.[49] On 18 November, a different user reported that the app was sending all media attachments, including user images to error-logging service Sentry, and all data to Firebase, with the data being stored unencrypted in both places. At the time, the Firebase database contained over 630,000 media files. 9to5Google confirmed that anyone can intercept the application's Firebase credentials (from their own device or any other device), log into Firebase and see all other users' past and real-time messages.[50][51] Another party developed a script for downloading this data automatically and published the code to GitHub.[52] Within 24 hours, Nothing pulled the Nothing Chats application from Google Play.[44][51][53]

Drinks

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Beer (5.1%) is a beer created by Nothing Technology. The beer was initially announced on 1 April 2023, and was made available in the UK in October 2023. The drink is brewed by Free time Beer Co., which is based in Wales.

References

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  1. ^ Alex Pell (30 June 2022). "Can nothing's cheaper handset really rival the iPhone?". Standard.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Nothing phone quirky design aims to light up market". BBC News. 12 July 2022. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  3. ^ Singh, Manish (16 October 2022). "OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirms he has left the company". TechCrunch. Yahoo. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  4. ^ Singh, Manish (9 December 2022). "OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei raises $7 million for his new venture". TechCrunch. Yahoo. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  5. ^ Porter, Jon (27 January 2021). "OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei's next company is literally called Nothing". The Verge. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  6. ^ Wilde, Damien (15 February 2022). "Essential is now officially owned by Carl Pei's Nothing Technologies". 9to5Google. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  7. ^ Seifert, Dan (15 February 2022). "Nothing company now owns the Essential brand, for some reason". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  8. ^ Porter, Jon (24 February 2021). "Nothing taps Teenage Engineering to design upcoming products". The Verge. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  9. ^ "Nothing launches its Ear 1 wireless earbuds with a transparent design". xda-developers. 27 July 2021. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Carl Pei's Nothing raises $50 mln, partners with Qualcomm". Reuters. 13 October 2021. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
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  12. ^ Heater, Brian (9 March 2022). "Money for Nothing and chips from a Series B". TechCrunch. Yahoo. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
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  14. ^ a b Brown, C. Scott (23 March 2022). "Nothing Phone 1 is company's first phone, landing with Android-based Nothing OS". Android Authority. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
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  20. ^ Bonk, Lawrence (5 August 2023). "Nothing announces budget-friendly sub-brand, readies new smartwatch". Engadget. Archived from the original on 5 August 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
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  22. ^ Tim, Gideon (18 April 2024). "Nothing Ear (2024) Review". pcmag. Archived from the original on 16 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  23. ^ Shivam, Harsh (11 July 2024). "CMF Phone 1 is being manufactured in India, announces UK-based Nothing". Business Standard. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  24. ^ a b Porter, Jon (23 March 2022). "Nothing's First Smartphone is Aimed at Apple, Not OnePlus". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  25. ^ Porter, Jon (12 July 2022). "Nothing officially announces flashy Phone 1, starting at £399". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 16 June 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  26. ^ "After 2 Days, 100,000+ People Have Pre-Ordered The Nothing Phone (1)". ScreenRant. 27 June 2022. Archived from the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  27. ^ "Exclusive: Nothing Phone (1) uses mid-range Snapdragon 778G+ chip". 4 May 2022. Archived from the original on 21 October 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  28. ^ Fingas, John (11 July 2023). "Nothing Phone 2 comes to the US on July 17th for". Engadget. Archived from the original on 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  29. ^ Amadeo, Ron (5 March 2024). "The Nothing Phone 2a is a light-up budget phone for $349". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 5 March 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  30. ^ "Nothing Phone (2a) - Full phone specifications". GSMArena. Archived from the original on 4 March 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  31. ^ Trinko, Myroslav. "Nothing sold 100,000 units of Phone (2a) in its first day". gagadget.com. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  32. ^ Jon, Porter (27 July 2022). "Nothing officially reveals its $99 Ear (1) true wireless earbuds". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 24 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  33. ^ "Here Comes a Sound of Change - Nothing ear (1)" (Press release). Nothing Technology Company. 2 August 2021. Archived from the original on 21 November 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  34. ^ "Nothing Announces ear (1) Carbon Neutrality and a New Black Edition" (Press release). Nothing Technology Company. 6 December 2021. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  35. ^ Moon, Mariella (18 August 2022). "Nothing raises the price of its Ear 1 buds to $149 citing increased costs". Engadget. Yahoo. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  36. ^ Sparrow, Mark. "Nothing Launches Ear (stick) Wireless Earbuds With A Stylish Cosmetic Twist". Forbes. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  37. ^ Scarrott, Becky (28 October 2022). "Nothing Ear (Stick)". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
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  40. ^ Phelan, David. "Nothing Ear (2): Founder Carl Pei Teases Secrets Of The Next Cool Earbuds". Forbes. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
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  44. ^ a b "Nothing Chats pulled from Play Store after investigations find serious security flaws". Android Authority. 20 November 2023. Archived from the original on 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  45. ^ "Nothing Chats will give you iMessage on Android but only on the Nothing Phone 2". Android Authority. 14 November 2023. Archived from the original on 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  46. ^ Velazco, Chris (15 November 2023). "Coming soon: A fix for the Android green-bubble problem". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 14 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
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  50. ^ Schoon, Ben (18 November 2023). "Nothing Chats, the Sunbird-based iMessage app, is a privacy nightmare with unencrypted messages and images". 9to5Google. Archived from the original on 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
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  53. ^ Amadeo, Ron (20 November 2023). "Nothing's iMessage app was a security catastrophe, taken down in 24 hours". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
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