Nothing CEO, Carl Pei, has recently addressed speculations regarding the company’s potential plans to launch a foldable phone. In a recent interview, Pei revealed that Nothing is currently uninterested in entering the foldable phone market, as he believes that foldable phones are still a niche product.
“I don’t think consumers walk around saying, hey, I wish my phone could fold,” Pei said. “I think it’s an innovation that the manufacturers are pushing onto the consumer.”
Pei left no room for ambiguity as he declared that Nothing has no intention of entering the foldable phone market anytime soon. In the interview, Pei clarified that his skepticism is not directed at foldable phones per se, but rather at the current state of the technology.
He also drew attention to the lack of differentiation among existing foldable phones in the market, stating, “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. If you don’t see the logo anymore, you hide the logo on the foldable, I don’t think a consumer can really tell them apart,”
In a later interview with The Verge, Pei highlighted the challenges of profitability and limited adoption faced by foldable devices, making it an unsuitable market for Nothing at present. “The thing for us is every product needs to be profitable and every product needs to be a hit because we don’t have infinite resources,” he said. “So foldable and flip phones are not that exciting yet. Over time, as the category matures, as the crease starts really disappearing, as apps are being tailored to this new form factor, it’s something we could consider,” he added.