Nothing
Nothing makes phones and earbuds with transparent casings and a light-based notification system, competing on design in a category where almost nobody does.
About Nothing
Nothing competes on how its products look, which is a strange thing to be distinctive for and says something about the state of the category. Its phones have transparent backs showing the components underneath, and a pattern of lights on the rear - the Glyph interface - that signals calls, notifications and charging without the screen coming on. Underneath the styling the proposition is conventional: mid-range Android phones, wireless earbuds, and a software layer that has been well received for restraint. What is unusual is that a hardware company founded this recently reached an audience at all, in a market where distribution and scale normally settle the question before design gets a say. The company was founded in 2020 in London by Carl Pei, who had co-founded OnePlus and left it, with Akis Evangelidis among others. Its budget sub-brand CMF launched in 2023.