Nothing, a Design-Forward Tech Company
Backstory
Nothing Technology Limited (aka NOTHING) is a London-based tech company. Their mission is to remove barriers between people and technology. It was founded by Carl Pei, an experienced entrepreneur that worked for Nokia, Oppo and then co-founded Oneplus in 2013, together with Pete Lau. At the end of 2020, he decided to leave OnePlus to start a new venture. He then raised $7 million as a seed round from names like Tony Fadell ("father of the iPod" and co-founder of Nest), Casey Neistat (well-known youtuber), Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch), Steve Huffman (Reddit CEO), Josh Buckley (Product Hunt CEO) and many others.
Make Tech Fun Again
We want innovations not iterations. Consumer technology used to mean momentum and excitement, today it’s just boredom. Every year we get the same boring phones from the same big tech companies. When you are big it’s hard to radically innovate, you need someone small and bold who will risk everything to challenge the status quo. Nothing started as a small but ambitious company with a dream of redefining the tech space.
Now all tech products look the same. This is not limited to technology but also of websites, applications, automobiles, interiors, architecture, and consumer brands. Everything is following the same patterns and there is a name for this. It’s called Blanding.
The mobile space has not changed for the past 10 years and there were few attempts to create something different. One of those was Essential by Andy Rubin (Android founder). They were trying to create a device called "Gem," which was thinner than a regular phone, based primarily on voice control, and would have used advanced artificial intelligence to process voice control inputs. The product never made it to the market, and before the company failed, Nothing purchased the trademark with related patents within a month of their launch.
When Carl built OnePlus, companies relying on Android were only thinking about putting out a lot of features without caring much about the design or the user experience around their products. Many people preferred iPhones because of the simplicity.
Interactions and experiences around products should be simple. That’s why Nothing wants to craft intuitive, flawlessly connected products that improve our lives without getting in the way. Because beautiful tech shouldn’t be complicated. They state on their About page: “Imagine a world where all of your devices are seamlessly connected. Tech that just works. That you don’t have to think about. That feels like nothing.”
I believe this is where technology is going, and Nothing has already figured it out.
I also talked about it in my last post "A future with invisible technology."
Competing with Apple
Creating interesting technology products is not easy, especially if you are innovating in the smartphone industry. There is a lot of competition but not much differentiation. The founder of Nothing is concerned that Apple is gaining more and more ground, leaving no alternative for the younger generation.
He talks about Apple products being cold, white and distant from people. They want to build human products with a personality instead. They want to create a compelling alternative to Apple for all the people dissatisfied by tech right now. Apple is great but they’re not innovating as much as they used to (even Steve Jobs daughter joked about that).
Apple shouldn’t be the only viable option. They provide a close ecosystem. As soon as you leave the ecosystem for something different, it breaks down. For Apple there is no alternative to Apple. When you build a consumer-first company and your consumers don’t have choices, you have a problem.
Nothing is building an open and diverse ecosystem who gives people choice. They are partnering with other companies to improve the experience for users while accelerating innovation. Products from different companies will seamlessly integrate with each other. So you can have different brands without being forced to buy everything from the same company. Within the Nothing ecosystem you can easily access your Airpods or Tesla settings without problems. Just think in a few years when it will be possible to manage home automation directly from the phone, with the difference that products won’t all be Nothing.
Design like Wow
Design can be a great differentiating factor when you are trying to launch new products. That’s why Jesper Kouthoofd and Tom Howard from teenage engineering are founding partners at Nothing. Jesper is the visionary behind Nothing’s design world and Tom the Head of Design. Together with the team, they are doing a good impressive job and winning a lot of design awards.
Nothing design recipe is → raw technology + human warmth
A distinctive trait of their products is transparent design.They didn’t invent it, but they were the first to make it part of the product identity. In a way, they have been trendsetters on this, and now many companies are taking notes (such as Beats, owned by Apple).
Apple is known for making its products distinctly recognizable, even from a distance. That's why Steve Jobs reversed the apple on the back of Macs and now iPhones are distinguished by the 3-camera block. Nothing took that concept and did x10 with the Glyph on the back. It’s not only the phones but also the earbuds, Nothing Products are expressive and distinctive.
Design can be a differentiating factor when you are a startup but then you cannot rely only on it. You have to reinvest in technology because that is the ultimate moat of a tech company. Design is the main reason people are now buying Nothing products. They started with hardware design and now they are playing with the other side, software design.
The Glyph interface has been placed on the back of the phone like a computer that does not get in the way of navigation. The colorful and noisy notifications draw people to the screens and absorb them. So they thought that you can hold the phone facing down and the Glyph will tell us what is going on. This way people are present and only use the phone for notifications that are important to them. The most interesting feature so far is the interactive light trail, which shows the approaching Uber driver. They have also balanced the functional aspect with the playful one. You can use the composer Glyph to create ringtones and notification sounds, playing with Swedish House Mafia's sound pack.
The software, Nothing OS, is the foundation of their ecosystem. It is a bold monochromatic design trying to solve the cluttering problem on the home screens. They are also eliminating most of the distracting colors, keeping their black, white and red to have consistency in their design system. The OS also provides interesting widgets that improve functionally and empower the users. All this eventually ends up creating smooth interactions and unique experiences for them.
Not Just Tech
Everything they are doing with products seems exciting, but their innovation is not limited to technology alone. Their flagship store is at the center of many experiences. It isn’t only a purchasing touchpoint in the customer journey but also a place to do events and meet the community. For example, the Play Product Designer, where people can interact with a copy of their design studio, showing a behind-the-scenes to their creative process. But also the sense of exclusivity they convey with Nothing Drops, part of their distribution; pop-up stores where you can get the company's products in advance.
Now the team has grown to include 300 talents from the design, fashion and technology industries. That's because they are about to launch Nothing Apparel, minimal clothing for designers, engineers, and creatives, which they unveiled at Dover Street Market. They recently brewed Nothing Beer, an unfiltered rice lager available in the UK and soon in other countries. Also, most Nothing Ear users use iPhones, so they introduced phone covers in the wait for them to switch to Nothing phone.
CMF, Wonderful by design
CMF is Nothing's latest venture. It was created with the goal of making great design accessible for all. This new company is producing great products at an accessible price for all. The reason why they created another brand is probably that they didn't want to alter Nothing's identity and high positioning but still reach a wider audience.In this way, they are self-financing as startup, prospering and avoiding failure. This allows them to take more risks in innovation and creating exciting future products.
What does CMF mean? It stands for Colors, Materials, Finishes invented by Italian designer Clino T. Castelli while working for Herman Miller. By playing with these 3 elements, the company can increase the perception of a product while still maintaining an affordable price.
So far they’ve launched 3 products: colorful headphones, an amazing smartwatch, and a charger. All with a cost of less than $100. Before launching in Europe, they focused on India because they believe the market is ready and people are tech savvy.
Community is key
We live in the Creator Economy and today having a community represents the ultimate competitive advantage. When you make something people want, eventually they’ll spread the word for you and when you get network effects you can get really big, fast. Carl Pei understood this well during his time working at OnePlus. Casey Neistat, youtuber friend and investor in Nothing, said so. Their latest keynote to introduce the Nothing Phone (2) is in collaboration with him and is in the style of his iconic vlogs.
The community is key for Nothing, they regularly upload updates for them. In 2022 they opened investment to the community and within 54 seconds raised $1 million. By investing in the company, you have the opportunity to be elected as a Community Board Observer. This figure is a bridge that connects the company and the community. CEO Carl Pei, also listens to feedback and participates in online content, reacting to tech creators' reviews of their products. With the recent launch of CMF, there was also the Community Review Program that gave people the opportunity to receive product previews, review them in online content, thus creating user generated content for free.
What’s cooking at Nothing?
They are now strengthening their software proposition. They always take Apple as a point of reference and comparison but I think ultimately they are going to compete with Humane. Nothing is working on AI and they want a seamless technology that disappears, improving people's lives without being a friction for them. Create meaningful interactions integrating product and software. I am curious to see what the next steps will be.
For those who are curious
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excellent piece Andrea!