After launching a pair of true wireless earbuds last year with a decent feature set, unique design, and reasonably affordable price tag, Nothing plans to launch its first smartphone next month.
The company, which was founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has been building buzz for the upcoming Nothing Phone (1) ahead of launch… but one thing the company hasn’t publicly confirmed until now? The phone isn’t meant for use in North America.
This week the company began auctioning off the first 100 Nothing Phone (1) units to the highest bidders, and the auction page includes the following disclaimer:
Nothing phone (1) is not fully supported in North America. Functionality may be impacted depending on your carrier, coverage, speed and/or reliability; or it may not function at all. Purchase is not available for customers living in Mexico and South Korea. For a full Nothing phone (1) carrier list, please see the country and carrier list at: www.stockx.com/lp/nothing/
As Evan Blass pointed out on Twitter, it’s difficult for startup phone makers to break into Noth American phone markets which are dominated by a handful of wireless carriers. But there was a chance that the limited network support in the US and Canada was only limited to the phones that Nothing was auctioning off, so the folks at PCMag reached out for clarification… and got it.
Nothing released a statement noting that the company is focusing first on the UK and Europe, but Nothing does “have big plans to launch a US supported smartphone in the future” and plans to make a limited quantity of Nothing Phone (1) units available to enthusiasts in the US through a closed beta program, but it will likely have limited support for US cellular networks.
PCMag says coverage on T-Mobile will be “unpredictable.” AT&T users won’t be able to make use of voice-over-4G technology. And the phone won’t work on Verizon at all.
Much ado about Nothing.
😂