With the launch and #100Drops behind us and the excitement for the 12th March offer of Rs 19,999 building, now seems like the perfect moment to share my experience at the Nothing Phone (2a) Delhi launch event.
India at the forefront:
First off, it fills me with immense pride to witness a global launch event by Nothing taking place in India. Shows how much India as progressed as a country, by being one of the most important region for a new emerging smartphone company. It’s clear that Nothing recognizes and values India’s potential, especially considering that India is home to the world’s second-largest number of smartphone users. As of December ’23, there were 866 million mobile data users in India, each consuming over 20GB monthly on average, clearly showing importance of smartphones here in India. With about 300 million 2G or non-data users still out there, mostly using feature phones, the market for smartphone upgrades and new users is vast. India saw 152 million smartphones shipped in 2023 alone—more than the combined populations of the UK and Germany!
Great part is that Nothing understands this. Also, they understand the price sensitive value seeking nature of Indian consumers. And may be thats why they price their phones at USD 1=INR 70 vs actual exchange rate of USD 1=INR 83 and Apple does the opposite of USD 1=INR 100
Venue Vibes:
The event was hosted at Yashobhoomi, India’s largest convention and exhibition center, recently inaugurated by PM Modi. Obviously, renting of whole venue doesnt make sense, so Nothing went ahead with a part of the hall i.e. Hall 2C. They missed an opportunity, should have booked Hall 2A :p for obvious reasons.
Overall setup:
Just outside the Hall 2C, they had registration counters with separate counters & queues for media, VIP, Community phase 1 and other ticket holders. For the 5pm IST launch, they had informed everyone in advance to reach max by 4:30pm IST, so that everyone is settled by 5pm IST. My wife and I, having come straight from work, reached at 4:25 PM IST, just in time to collect our entry wristbands. 2-3 min queue was there. Here, I met Khushgra (ELEE) community member. Yup, I took my wife along to make her meet some of community members. She should also know with whom I spend a good amount of daily time. I always tell her, I am busy with nothing :p
Along with the entry bands, we got Nothing themed drink token.
On entry, we were first greeted by a giant Nothing Phone (2a) themed entry gate, with camera eyes acting as entry tunnels. Quite unique design. Also met, Nothing India head Levi Li there. I remember him from that first Gurgaon OG black dot meet which happened few years back.
Post the tunnels, there were two different entries : For media and for others, each with one bar. Bar (1) and Bar (2) were the names. A like to this post at this stage, will be “cool” :p
Along with Bar (1), there was an area full of wall graffiti style enclosures. Nice photo place.
Then was the main hall with a curved screen stage and seats. Separate sitting areas for Media, VIP and community. Post the sitting area, there was space for people to stand. The whole setup was obviously in black theme. Here I met Rob, Natalie and Rohit, busy welcoming the community members in the hall
The hall also had a photo booth and community stall (will talk about it later in the post). The photo booth was a black enclosure with a projector throwing lines of “Nothing” text. Someone standing in that booth will see his/her clothes as black with “Nothing” written all over. Couldn’t click a pic there but will add in here if I find one from a community user. Do comment a pic if you clicked.
Keynote:
Anyways, you all have seen the keynote but given it was Nothing’ first ever live in-person keynote, I want to share some of the experiences from physical attendance point of view. Considering, it was first, the keynote was quite engaging and smooth. It was a nice mix of live stage presentation and video streams. Akis factory tour actually filled the whole hall with energy. What a guy. Many of you may not have seen the seamless entry of Akis from the video to the stage. Here is the video:
Carl was flawless as always. He even wore the new shoes which he shopped recently in Delhi. Hope you have seen that video.
The keynote ended with two banger announcements: 19,999 INR price of 2a and partnership with Perplexity AI.
Some BTS for you guys. Here is the tele prompter which was being used for the keynote. It only had key words and the presenter was actually speaking around those words, giving the whole keynote a more natural feel vs reading word-by-word.
Food, Drinks & Goodies:
With the end of the keynote, the bar and food started. Nothing had arranged for some starters, drinks and some goodies for the attendees. Yup, there was some mismanagement in food and goodies. I think it impacted the people who were there just for those things. People actually interested in Nothing and launch were more engrossed in exploring the venue and connecting with others in the main hall. Personally, I didn’t bother about food, drink & goodies. My wife got herself a soft drink.
Community Booth:
While there were things to explore in the main hall but one thing which was shinning through was the Nothing Community Booth. True to the community centric approach, the booth was just adjacent to the stage. Alongside a display of community projects, the booth provided a place for community to hang out and interact. Met some of our highly engaged community members and staff members there. My favourite display was of community made nothing dialer app. I wish that comes to reality soon (obviously with discreet auto call recording inbuilt).
Even some exclusive Nothing Stickers were on offer at the booth as well. Nice little perk for community. Someone at the booth even took autograph of Rob and Natalie and surprisingly extended the notepad to me also for the signature.
#withNothing Display Area:
Finally to the last display area. As you would know that a group of Nothing Insiders was testing Phone (2a) for more than 2 months and obviously they clicked a lot of photos. So, Nothing had installed few TVs at this display area showing the camera capabilities of Nothing Phone (2a) through a slide show of selected pictures taken by insiders on 2a.
It was so nice to see photos clicked by me, Derren and other insiders on a big screen at the launch event. It felt so good that we helped the company test the camera system and even the company appreciates that. The photos spoke for themselves about the camera system of 2a.
While there was a lot more to explore and meet people, but somehow I felt a bit unwell, so decided to leave for the day in the interest of my health. Would have loved to spend more time there and enjoy the event. I missed meeting Carl & Akis in person and see the Phone (2a) experience zone. Nevermind, may be some things happen for good. Next time !!!
