Nothing to release new product 23/03
As London-based tech company Nothing is releasing their pre-recorded product announcement keynote today, speculation runs deep in the community. What is the new Nothing? Which product category will they try to reinvent? It’s really exciting to watch an emerging tech company going at established products with a new perspective – which in Nothing’s case is transparency (pun intended).
There are two themes that came up consistently throughout their content and communications leading up to this event: transparency and truth.
As obvious as the former is, the latter is that much more confusing. Let’s have a quick think and do our own speculation for what they might announce!
- A Smartwatch ⌚️
This seems like the obvious choice to me for many reasons. Let’s go back to the launch of Ear 1, their only product so far. The wireless earbud market had a few characteristics that convince me about the “Nothing Wrist 1”.
- An Apple-dominated industry, where design matters a lot ✅
- A category that tech has struggled to conquer before Apple — body accessories ✅
- A physically small product — this matters a lot as designing earbuds or a watch is very different to a phone or a tablet ✅
- A relatively young, immature market where one big hit can get you far (see AirPods and Apple Watch) ✅
There are dozens, if not hundreds of earbuds on the market. Same with smartwatches. And in both markets, the product that people know the most (by *far*) is the one the Cupertino fruit company makes. (I will trademark that name). Both are very saturated markets but with no #2 player established. Nothing has a serious chance to take that spot.
And there are other clues hinting at a watch. For example this watchface-like graphic they used on their socials or the circle on founder & CEO Carl Pei’s sweater.
2. … a smartphone…? 📱
I honestly doubt it, but I guess I can’t just have one prediction. A lot of people are expecting a smartphone. In my opinion this is very unlikely. If the Ear 1 wasn’t so new, I would think an Ear 2 is more likely than a smartphone. But with the Ear 1 being not even a year old, I highly doubt that. Almost as highly as I doubt a smartphone… Given Carl’s experience with OnePlus, it’s reasonable to assume Nothing could make a great smartphone. However the smartphone market is much more mature, more capital-intensive, and margins are much lower than for Airpods. And for a young consumer hardware startup, that matters.
I don’t even have a third option. There are too many reasons for a watch. And the watch is so logical, that it makes it impossible to think of other things... It’s gotta be a watch.
If you paid attention in the beginning, there’s one thing we didn’t talk about: their communication around “TRUTH”.
It seems too significant — but I’m struggling to figure out the meaning behind it. Are they going to expose the industry and show the truth about how much money there is in earbuds / smartwatches..? This would also fit their transparency theme… but I think that’s unlikely. Equally, I can’t quite come up with anything else 🤷🏼
Anyway, there hasn’t been a tech product release that I was this curious about since probably the Tesla Cybertruck unveiling event.
Follow me for an update tomorrow on my reaction & thoughts!
