Nothing Co-Founder Akis Evangelidis on foldable phones, colours and which brand his users are switching from

It’s been about a year since Nothing launched the Phone (1), and we are now ready for the follow-up. Akis Evangelidis, Co-Founder of Nothing, was in Dubai to launch Phone (2) to the Middle East market and was kind enough to spare a few minutes with me.

Nothing has managed to create quite a name for itself very quickly, which, in today’s saturated market, is not an easy task. Congratulations on that. Since almost everyone buying a new phone is switching from an older one, have you noticed any specific brands that your users are switching from?

You’re totally right. It is a very saturated market. Everyone thought it would be crazy to even think about entering this market. But we proved, over the last two years, that there is an appetite for Nothing. We have something very unique to bring to the table. 

We are the Android brand with the highest percentage of users coming from iOS

We’ve seen in quite a few markets that we are the Android brand with the highest percentage of users coming from iOS. So we are sort of bringing an alternative to the market and more choice, especially in a market dominated by a few brands with more or less the same offering. We have something very unique to bring to the table. 

You have a very minimalist colour palette made of black, white and grey, but people like colours. Any chance of bringing some interesting colours?

We are at a stage where we are still early as a brand. We don’t want to do too many things, and dilute the brand identity. So, we are sticking to safer colours. 

(Pointing to the new grey colour) This is a refined version of the black version we had introduced, which is slightly more elevated. We wanted to bring this darker colour and bring more depth to the design. And the grey colour has this kind of slight blue reflection to it, which is super cool. For now, we have a more conservation approach.

If Nothing was to make a foldable phone – would it be a Flip or Fold?

To be honest, we are not even thinking about it.

Sure, but if you were to make one, which direction would you prefer?

I would go flip because I like the idea of having something smaller, and I like the fact that you can easily use the rear camera for selfies, which is quite cool, especially with the screen integration.

Is Nothing looking to expand its product portfolio?

Since day one, we’ve been willing to build an alternative ecosystem with unique products. We are definitely working towards that. That being said, it is going to be a step-by-step process. Currently, we are really focusing on refining our experience, starting with the smartphone and our audio products. 

We are definitely looking at entering more product categories, but we are not going to rush, and do things step-by-step and do it well, and the rest will follow.

Where do you see Nothing a few years from now? 

Hard to tell, to be frank. If two and a half years ago, when we started this, you would tell me that I would be here in Dubai with so many great people attending our first launch event, I wouldn’t believe it. 

So, it’s hard to say where we’re going to be. But where we are today, I think, we’ve come a really long way. Even from when we launched Phone (1), to Phone (2), our whole team has grown considerably.

Now we have our own software team, which we didn’t have for Phone (1). And, I am sure next year, we will have an even stronger team with the ability to further innovate. With Phone (2), we are innovating on the software side of things, whereas, before it was more on the hardware side. And as we build our capabilities, we will be able to bring to life more unique offerings to the users.