Nothing CEO claims hearing rumors that big smartphone makers are financing propaganda against Nothing

Since its inception in 2021, Nothing has enjoyed tremendous growth. The company reportedly crossed $1 billion in lifetime sales while doubling its year-over-year revenue to $500 million in 2024. This is a pretty impressive pace when we consider that Nothing only launched its first product, the Ear (1) earbuds, in 2021 and its first smartphone, the Phone (1), in 2022.

Within the span of just three years, Nothing has released three phone generations, the latest being the Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro, alongside a bunch of different wireless earbuds in the Nothing Ear lineup. The company has even spawned a budget sub-brand “CMF” with the release of the CMF Phone 1 and accompanying accessors like the CMF Watch and CMF Buds.

So, it is easy to see how such a relentless pace of growth can make established smartphone makers fret a little. Nothing CEO Carl Pei has now confirmed hearing rumors about big smartphone companies “paying people to write negative things” about Nothing. 

Carl Pei claims that this propaganda by smartphone makers that are “way bigger than us” is aimed at either making up issues about Nothing products or blowing the already known issues out of proportion. This kind of misinformation is meant to dissuade consumers from buying Nothing products.

While Carl Pei doesn’t name any names, he does mention being happy about the fact that “companies that are 150 times bigger than us are scared of us”. He considers this a sign of respect and hopes that companies will start to play at a level playing field that will benefit the end customer.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter if some supposed competitors are engaged in shady tactics to discredit Nothing as long as Nothing can keep introducing exciting products. So far, the company has managed to do exactly that. The resulting success of Nothing is a net positive for consumers as more competition is always better.