Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Nothing’s co-founder Carl Pei recently spoke about the company’s stance on foldable phones.
- Pei said that consumers aren’t walking around wanting foldable phones.
- He thinks foldables are still a niche product, something the company won’t be making any time soon.
2023 has definitely been the year of foldable phones. Between Google, OnePlus, OPPO, Motorola, Xiaomi, and Samsung, there’s hardly a smartphone brand that’s not launching a foldable device this year. But newcomer Nothing doesn’t seem to be in a rush to jump onto the bandwagon.
In a recent interview with IndiaToday, Nothing Chief Carl Pei expressly spoke about the company’s disinterest in launching a foldable phone, despite some rumors about the existence of such a device. According to Pei, foldable phones are niche products.
“It’s good that some people are building it, but if you look at how the foldables are evolving, they are all the same again,” Pei said. “If you don’t see the logo anymore, you hide the logo on the foldables, I don’t think a consumer can really tell them apart,” he added.
When asked if Nothing plans to launch a foldable phone, Pei said, “Not anytime soon.”
“I don’t think consumers walk around saying, hey, I wish my phone could fold. I think it’s an innovation that the manufacturers are pushing onto the consumer,” Pei said.
Needless to say, the executive has put an end to all rumors about a potential foldable phone from Nothing. However, the winds change very quickly in the tech industry, and if not soon, there’s nothing stopping Nothing from doing a foldable phone next year or the year after that.
Meanwhile, talking about the upcoming Nothing Phone 2, Pei said that the company would be happy if the phone sold the same number of units as the Phone 1. The company sold close to 750,000 units of its first smartphone, and since Phone 2 is a more premium device, it would naturally fetch Nothing a lot more than the Phone 1 if it sells as well as its predecessor.
