UK-Based Tech Company To Launch a Smartphone in the US To Rival the iPhone

One of the UK's newest smartphone start-ups is looking to take the US smartphone market by storm.

UK-based consumer tech company Nothing Technology Ltd. (Nothing for brevity) is planning on launching a new phone in the US capable enough to go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone.

The company had already launched a smartphone of its own to critical success, with it gaining praise from many tech critics like The Verge and Tech Radar.

Nothing's Plans For America

Nothing co-founder Carl Pei mentioned in an interview with CNBC that he and the company are in early conversations with American carriers on the launching of a new smartphone in the US, though he didn't name any of the carriers Nothing was in talk with.

According to the co-founder, he and the company didn't release their first smartphone in the US, the Nothing Phone (1), because they weren't ready to do so. He reasoned that a company would need "a lot of additional technical support" to make a phone available to all the carriers and the unique customizations they need to make on top of Android.

As for why Pei thinks that there could be a market for Nothing smartphones in the US, he said that a third of the sales of the company's recently launched headphones, the Ear (stick), came from the US.

As a result of these sales, he believes there is a market for Nothing's smartphones in the US due to interest in the company's products. Pei also added that Nothing could obtain a significant amount of growth by expanding into the US market.

Pei added that he wants to challenge Apple's dominance in the US, though he expects an uphill battle due to how ingrained Apple's features like iMessage and AirDrop are with the American people.

Nothing's plan to sell its smartphones to the US is part of Pei's plan to help the company become profitable in 2024, as it is not at the time of this article's publication.

Pei stated that this state was made worse by difficulties in the foreign currency exchange; Nothing is paying much of its cost of goods sold in US Dollars, devaluing everything in the process.

Nothing Phone 1 Reception

That isn't to say that Nothing's phone design is out of its depth. Nothing's Phone (1) features a user-experience-based OS, quick response times, and a smooth-scrolling, pleasant-to-use OLED screen that impressed critics. However, its average battery life and lack of a charger are criticized.

Its user interface was also found to be wanting more refinement, while its chipset might put some off due to its age.

Digital Trends added that while the phone can be charged wirelessly and that it is a great phone for its price, its inconsistent wide-angle camera could be a nuisance.

Most, if not all, critics gave the phone four out of a possible five stars as a result.