Nothing's Smartphone Plans May Be Finally Coming To Fruition
In January 2021, two months after former OnePlus CEO Carl Pei left the company he co-founded with Pete Lau, he created an entirely new consumer electronics brand called 'Nothing.' Within six months of Nothing's creation, in July 2021, the brand launched its first product in the form of the Nothing Ear 1 TWS earbuds. These earbuds garnered mixed reviews from users and reviewers alike — but earned near-universal praise for their industrial design.
From the day it was incorporated, expectations were that Nothing would eventually come up with a smartphone. Some reports even claimed that the first Nothing-branded smartphone would launch in 2022. And recent developments seem to be giving credence to these rumors.
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Carl Pei sent out a series of cryptic tweets that made direct references to Android and Google. What made the tweets interesting was that these were sent from an Android smartphone, and Carl Pei is usually known to tweet using an iPhone or the Twitter web app.
The responses from the official Twitter handles of Android and Qualcomm Snapdragon to Pei's tweet were even more interesting. While stopping short of revealing anything concrete, these tweets seem to be the first indication that Nothing is, indeed, working on an Android-based device that could possibly use a Snapdragon chip.
What exactly did Carl Pei say?
Pei's first tweet initially seemed like a general comment on Android 12 and was construed as that. This tweet simply said, "Android 12 is nice!". What was notable, however, is that Pei also tagged Google's SVP for Android Hiroshi Leockheimer in the tweet.
An hour later, Pei sent out a second tweet saying he was "Back on Android." A large chunk of his 367K Twitter followers were quick to respond to this and asked him if this was an indirect hint towards Nothing's first Android smartphone. A while later, both Android and Qualcomm's Twitter handles replied to Pei's tweet.
It is also notable that a few days prior to this, Carl Pei sent out another tweet asking his followers what their favorite Android-based OS is. As of writing this article, Pei is yet to confirm or deny rumors about a possible Nothing-branded phone.
Given that Nothing's journey started with a wearable device, there is also the likelihood that Nothing's next product could turn out to be a Google WearOS and Snapdragon-powered smartwatch. What do you think?