The Carl Pei Nothing announcement shows a clear picture of the modern OnePlus

Earlier today, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei finally revealed the name of his new company: Nada. The obvious nickname is generating a lot of publicity for the new venture. This is quite an achievement, considering that we still have no idea what Nothing will create. Pei would only commit to Nothing as a “London based consumer technology company”.

Without any formal commitment from the brand, there is practically nothing to say about Nothing. However, this does not mean that there are not many interesting things happening in the Nothing press release and in Pei’s discussions about the company so far. The setback is that these statements shed more light on the company that Pei recently left than on his new venture.

I want to highlight two pieces of information we learned today and theorize about how they paint an unflattering image of the OnePlus as it is today.

Nothing will not “re-label someone else’s products”

An interview with Carl Pei launched in The Verge in conjunction with the formal announcement of Nada. The Verge tried to extract any information he could about Pei’s Nothing, but he didn’t move. He had some cryptic information, which we posted here:

“[Nothing is] a totally independent company owned by our founding team and our investors, ”says Pei, with his own R&D department. And despite using third-party manufacturers to build their devices, Pei says that Nothing is not just going to “re-label someone else’s products.”

Anyone who follows the world of technology closely will understand this last line as an apparent excavation on OnePlus. Although the company has always borrowed heavily from Oppo and its other sister brands under the BBK banner (and later the OPLUS banner), OnePlus’s Oppo-ification has only worsened over the years. In 2020, the company abandoned all pretensions and launched two “new” phones – Nord N10 and Nord N100 – that were almost carbon copies of Oppo phones.

Related: OnePlus opposition is getting worse

Coincidentally, these phones were launched right around the time Carl Pei left the company. Pei’s Declaration for The Verge strongly suggests that part of the reason he left OnePlus may have to do with this relaxed attitude towards the brand’s own market identity.

“There is a reason why many products on the market are quite similar”

Pei continued to pour gas on the fire with another statement to The Verge. In explaining how Nothing will be independent, he dropped this bomb:

“There is a reason why many products on the market are quite similar,” notes Pei. “It is because they share many of the same components and the same building blocks.”

Again, this appears to be a veiled warning from OnePlus. Since the company started seven years ago, there has been a lot of scrutiny about how it is connected to other Chinese brands. It is obvious that OnePlus does not operate entirely independently. For example, OnePlus’ birthday was on December 16, 2013. In April 2014, the company had already designed and manufactured the OnePlus One. Clearly, an entirely new startup would not be able to do this without serious help.

See too: OnePlus phones: a story of the entire company line so far

While Pei’s closed nature prevents us from reaching any true conclusions, I can’t help feeling that he was probably frustrated by OnePlus’s recent moves to be less independent. When Pei co-founded OnePlus, he was just 24 years old. Based on the quotes, it may be that he feels that the company would start by getting a little help from the associated brands and then gradually become more independent. The existence of the OnePlus Nord N10 / N100 – as well as the similarities between the leaked OnePlus 9 designs and the Oppo Reno 5 – suggest that it is far from the current direction of the OnePlus.

Is Carl Pei just fanning the headlines?

I could sit here and dissect everything that Pei has revealed today for a long time. Even though we need to extrapolate a little because of his incredible ability to play his cards close to his chest, one thing is absolutely certain: Carl Pei left OnePlus and is not ashamed to use that to push Nothing.

With that in mind, it is very possible that Pei is just playing a public relations game. Perhaps he left OnePlus not out of frustration with the company’s management, but for other reasons. Perhaps your statements today are not specific criticisms of your former employer, but simple warnings from the technology industry in general. I do not know.

Pei is a master at building hype.

I know that Pei is a master at building hype. While he was with OnePlus, his pre-launch interviews and announcements always revealed just enough to make people salivate, but not enough that they had real control of the product. This was something he put fully into practice in building the OnePlus Nord – a project he led while he was with the company. The resulting public relations campaign for the half-ranger was as extensive as it was exhaustive. Clearly, he is ready to use those same skills with Nothing.

The trick he will need to do now is to use his connection to OnePlus to overdo Nothing, but not to become dependent on it. Pei is smart enough to know that he can’t be “the guy who left OnePlus” forever. He needs to forge a new identity if he wants Nothing to stand on its own. After all, if my theories about his departure from OnePlus are correct, the last thing he will want is to be indebted to another brand.