Carl Pei, the OnePlus co-founder who parted methods with the corporate final yr, has introduced the title of his subsequent enterprise: Nothing. It describes itself as a “London primarily based client expertise firm” and counts the likes of iPod inventor Tony Fadell, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and YouTuber Casey Neistat as buyers. It plans to launch its first “good units” within the first half of this yr.
“Nothing’s mission is to take away boundaries between individuals and expertise to create a seamless digital future,” says Pei, Nothing’s founder and CEO, in a press launch. “We imagine that the most effective expertise is gorgeous, but pure and intuitive to make use of. When sufficiently superior, it ought to fade into the background and really feel like nothing.”
What’s unclear in the meanwhile is strictly what merchandise Nothing plans to launch. In an interview with The Verge forward of right this moment’s announcement, Pei declined to supply particular particulars on what kind Nothing’s first “good units” will take. He additionally declined to say which firms Nothing plans to compete with.
Pei does verify, nevertheless, that Nothing plans to launch merchandise throughout a number of classes, with the eventual intention of increase an ecosystem of units.
“Proper now… the workforce is being constructed, so we wish to give attention to easier classes,” Pei says, “however as our workforce beneficial properties capabilities and expertise we wish to begin transferring up. The last word imaginative and prescient of getting all the things related in a seamless means, that may solely occur when you’ve gotten a number of classes of merchandise which are related.”
Throughout Pei’s tenure at OnePlus, the corporate launched all the things from smartphones to headphones and even TVs. Final yr, Wired reported that Pei’s new firm may give attention to music and may embody manufacturing headphones. When requested, Pei declined to substantiate whether or not headphones can be amongst Nothing’s early merchandise. When requested by Wired, he mentioned the corporate’s plans have been “a lot greater than that.”
Whereas there’s been hypothesis that this might level towards Nothing creating an accompanying music service, Pei tells The Verge that Nothing plans to make most of its cash by promoting {hardware} relatively than software program subscriptions, not less than initially. “We haven’t spent an excessive amount of time interested by the software program portion of it,” Pei says. “It undoubtedly must be consumer expertise if you’re to generate income from software program.” In the long run, nevertheless, he admits {that a} “wholesome enterprise” requires each good {hardware} and good software program.
Pei’s new firm plans to distinguish itself by utilizing “customized made” parts in its merchandise proper from the beginning. Pei suggests this can cease Nothing’s merchandise from trying an excessive amount of like its opponents. “There’s a purpose why plenty of merchandise available on the market look fairly related,” Pei observes. “It’s as a result of they share plenty of the identical parts and the identical constructing blocks.”
In distinction, OnePlus’ telephones have confronted frequent criticism through the years for the similarities they’ve shared with Oppo’s telephones. In a latest video, Marques Brownlee outlined a collection of Oppo and OnePlus units with strikingly related {hardware}, just like the OnePlus 5 and Oppo R11, the OnePlus 6T and Oppo R17, and the OnePlus Nord N100 and Oppo A53. The 2 manufacturers even use related fast-charging applied sciences. OnePlus has Sprint Cost, and Oppo has VOOC.
Whereas OnePlus and Oppo are extensively reported to exist underneath the identical Chinese language company large BBK Electronics, Pei says Nothing is unencumbered by such an association. “[Nothing is] a totally impartial firm owned by our founding workforce and our buyers,” says Pei, with its personal R&D division. And regardless of utilizing contract producers to construct its units, Pei says Nothing received’t simply “relabel anyone else’s merchandise.”
However whereas Pei hopes Nothing’s early merchandise will function “differentiated” designs with out feeling “completely different for the sake of being completely different,” the eventual hope is for them to fade into the background.
“I form of envision a grass subject with individuals having a picnic and there’s no display screen, there’s no laptop computer display screen, there’s no telephone display screen, there’s no smartwatch display screen, there’s no billboard display screen,” Pei muses. “That’s form of the tip state.”
Verge columnist Walt Mossberg referred this future state as ambient computing in 2017. Pei admits that it could take 20 or 30 years to reach, however he says the longer term his firm is aiming for is one the place its expertise resembles… properly, nothing.