We seem to have made a lot of noise about Nothing. literally.
In the last few weeks, MobileSyrup reporters have covered Carl Pei’s Nothing and the upcoming phone in great detail (1). It turned out that everything was in vain – the Phone (1) will not come to Canada.
Leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks) noticed a new disclaimer on the auction page Nothing Phone (1), which reads as follows:
“Nothing phone (1) is fully supported in North America. Functionality may be affected depending on your operator, coverage, speed and / or reliability; or it may not work at all. “
The disclaimer then points to this list of supported operators, which does not include any of the United States or Canada.
Sounds like nothing skips the US in terms of Phone availability (1) and network compatibility. Disappointing, but understandable. It is difficult for young brands to achieve acceptance of an operator here and without these deals it is actually not worth negotiating retail channels at all …
– Ev (@evleaks) June 21, 2022
PC Mag received confirmation from Nothing of the lack of support, with the company providing the following statement:
“Although we would like to provide a telephone (1) to the whole community around the world, we are focusing on internal markets, including the United Kingdom and Europe, where we have strong partnerships with leading local operators. It takes a lot to launch a smartphone, as you know, from ensuring that the phone is supported by the country’s cellular technologies to partnerships with operators and local regulation, and since we are still a young brand, we need to be strategic in this regard.
“We have big plans to launch a US-supported smartphone in the future. For now, a limited number of our private investors in the United States will be able to access the phone (1) through a closed beta program. In the meantime, if readers really want a phone (1) to be available in the US as soon as possible, they should call their carrier to let us know.
In addition, Nothing told PC Mag that people may try to use Phone (1) with US operators, but it may not work well. In particular, Nothing said that the phone will have “unpredictable” coverage of T-Mobile, no voice in ATGT’s 4G and no service at all with Verizon. It is assumed that the coverage with Canadian carriers will be a similar stain.
Overall, this is a big problem for Nothing fans, who are looking forward to trying out the company’s new phone. Although I remained skeptical about the phone (1), I was looking forward to following the launch closely and learning more about it.
Now, nothing has left the possibility of launching a phone in the US (and, hopefully, in addition, in Canada) open to the future. This can be good in the long run. The first smartphones are hard to do well, and if Nothing can take what it learns from Phone (1) and then include North America in its release for its next product – such as an improved phone (2) – we could end up with something great. Only time will tell.
For now, Canadians will have to settle for nothing.
Title Image Credit: Nothing
Source: Evan Blas (@evleaks), PC Mag
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