Reflections for 2024

Carl · 2024-01-18T21:25:49+00:00

We’ve just started a new year, and I wanted to share my reflections. Hopefully this will give everyone context of where we are today, where we’re heading, and our priorities. Excited to hear your thoughts and opinions! **Our Opportunity** Over the past 20 years, significant progress has been made in technologies such as connectivity, batteries, silicon, cameras, and cloud. These advancements have changed the way we interact with computers, transformed how we live our lives, and significantly boosted efficiency. The companies behind this charge have been rewarded for their contributions, and as a result have become huge and successful. In the process, they’ve also shifted their strategy from innovation to defending their dominant positions. Going forward, they will focus on steady innovation, rather than breakthrough innovation. Our industry is ripe for new innovation and excitement. Startups, who usually have the role of testing new ideas and innovating, have a hard time participating in this industry due to its high barriers to entry. Yet, mobile computing is the biggest consumer product category in the world, with no signs of being replaced any time soon. Nothing occupies a special time and place in history. On one hand, we’ve managed to establish a foothold in this industry with no more than 10 companies around the table. On the other hand, we’re the youngest and smallest, with a lot of nimbleness and maneuverability. It feels like the baton has been passed to us, and we’re the one of the only ones with a shot of doing something significantly different. In our first stage, we needed to build foundational capabilities. With 5 products launched, and 2 million shipments; we’ve done this. With both wins and losses under our belt, we've learned and matured as a team along the way. Today, we have more options of where to go next than ever before. **Focus Areas in 2024** *1. Co-create Deeper With the Community* This year, we’re excited to take a major step forward in realizing our [Community Vision](https://nothing.community/d/2705-community-vision/25). There’s an enormous amount of talent in our Community that regularly engages, innovates and inspires us to further push the boundaries of technology. We will work closer with our Community, and create opportunities to build together. Community creations such as *[Ear (PC)](https://github.com/radiance-project/ear-pc)* from RapidZapper, and *[Nothing Gallery](https://github.com/jerichoi224/Nothing-Gallery)* by kahluabear and Alkid are just a few of the examples of impressive community projects that inspire us daily. Be on the lookout this year for more significant ways to co-create with us. It will be an interesting one for sure! *2. Grow in Scale and Become Even More Capable* Because our peers are all so big, there’s a very high base level of scale required to operate with some semblance of normalcy in our industry. Below that scale, we’ll always have a bunch of disadvantages in terms of COGS, cashflow, engineering capability, and technology investment to name a few. The only solution is to grow in scale, and the only way to do so is to figure out who we are, who we serve, and how to best serve them through our products and services. Timing is important. We need to figure out what to do and when. Considering both external factors and internal resources, doing things in the right order for optimal impact. We are now in the strongest position to accelerate our brand presence through smartphones, audio products and the CMF by Nothing brand. *3. Flex Our Creative and Innovation Muscles to Inspire* From the beginning, we’ve played it very safe in order to build our foundational capabilities. However, we are now at a point where we can trade off some stability for more creativity. Going forward, we will strengthen our creativity and innovation capabilities, drive up awareness of our brand, and more importantly; earn people's trust that we are going to surprise and capture their imaginations with fresh user experiences. We will put special focus on the audio category, as it's less impacted by Apple’s lock-in effect on smartphones. With lower barriers, we are able to invest more into design, user experience, and technology that will hopefully delight. I can’t wait to see all your reactions. 😁 **Staying Close to Our Community** In the coming weeks I'll be doing a live AMA with the community team. We’ll be choosing some questions from the comments below this post. @"Rob ⚡️"#207 will update you here when the live session is scheduled - I look forward to chatting!

HamzaAbbas

Carl One thing I’d love to see is that if you created a trade-in program exclusively for Nothing users. So Nothing Phone owners could upgrade to the newest one with ease and for a good deal. What are your thoughts on this?

VivaanReddy

Carl I’m curious about your commitment to ongoing research and development in smartphone technology. In today’s fast-paced market, innovative features play a crucial role in brand differentiation,With intense competition in the smartphone market, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. How is your company strategizing to introduce unique features that set your products apart from the competition?

Rob ⚡️

VivaanReddy Great Q!

VivaanReddy

Rob ⚡️ thanks, I used A.I to rephrase what i wanted to ask, to make the question better.

PrikshitGautam

Canon partnership?

Jari

Thanks for focusing on the community! One of the reasons I chose Nothing recently! I also recently bought the NP2 together with the Ear 2. Maybe the best decision tech-wise I have ever made.

When saying “We are now in the strongest position to accelerate our brand presence through smartphones, audio products and the CMF by Nothing brand”, does that mean Nothing won’t look into other products? I am thinking of Laptops, Wireless charging stands (it’s a pain to find a nice stand that matches the vibe Nothing went for), A non-CMF (premium) smartwatch, tablets…

Shyam

Carl good to know and thanks for sharing.

SamuraiTronVC

What’s your favourite food item from Indian cuisine?

ChaitanyaNarang

roman1 maybe by including spatial audio capabilities which competition (OnePlus , Samsung) already provides

They also need to think about how not to make the users regret getting Phone (2) by actually sending updates on time which bring improvements in areas where improvement is needed, like camera (HDR processing and low light capabilities) and maybe include software support for spatial audio since phones of almost the entire competition (OnePlus, Motorola, Samsung, not a competition but even Pixel) has software support for spatial audio

MarkoAndelkovic

there are rumors of a Nothing phone 3 and the Nothing phone 2a being released in the summer of 2024. How realistic are the chances of a new phone coming out in 2024? and if so when will it be announced?. A article i have found says that there will be a announcement coming 27 February this year in Barcelona during the MWC, announcing two phones. Is this true or is this fake news?

RoddyMerritt

Carl any word on AI implementation into Nothing OS? 👀

GauthamPai

Carl We will put special focus on the audio category, as it’s less impacted by Apple’s lock-in effect on smartphones.

I hope this doesn’t mean giving up on smartphone and it’s user experience.

Blobby

Carl what is the challenge in comming up with new products, software and design over-all it’s all pre made by the team or is it made later the product is released. Like phone 2 design was made before the phone 1 launch or was made later with the help of the phone 1 design

Daniel

Thanks for an interesting read! rewatched the last quarterly update video not too long ago so my question is related to that. When reflecting on the company turning 3 years old, you said there were two themes that came to mind - increasing your capability, and being misunderstood - what is the plan for 2024 to ensure that people are a little clearer about what it is that you’re trying to achieve?

nothingtechfanpage

Will Nothing ever import AI into its devices (locally)?

Will Nothing create courses for qualified technicians in the maintenance of your devices around the world?

Thanks for reading.

salutcf

When will the Glyph API be opened up for third party developers?

Rob ⚡️

Thanks for the great questions, keep them coming!
We will be going live with Carl using Spaces over on X/Twitter this Friday:

Jan 26 at 4:00 PM GMT

Follow the link below to set a reminder - see you there!

https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1YqKDglMrwYxV

roman1

what camera upgrades do you plan on for phone (3) (is this question even allowed lol)

RobSoLo

How are you planning to improve user experience?

endless_empathy

Question from small hands human being👉👈

Is it really such small demographic for “compact” ~6.0 inch smartphones, or do manufacturers just pack them with a poor price/feature ratio and users don’t buy them because of that, not because they don’t want “compact” phones?

And a quick follow-up question: Are you interested in exploring different screen aspect ratios for future phones, such as 21/9?

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