Smartphone startup Nothing will sell its next flagship model, the Nothing Phone (3), in the U.S. through its website and Amazon, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Nothing, which will unveil the new phone early next month in London, has released eight phones since its inception in 2020, but only one, the Phone (2), has made it to general sale in the U.S. so far. Before that, users had to sign up to buy a phone via a beta program, and there was no after-sales support, though you could return the device within 14 days to get a full refund.
“We have always said we are building for the long term, and now we’re ready to take that next step in the U.S. Phone (3) is not just another launch. It is a signal of where we are as a company. The smartphone market in the U.S. is dominated by two players, but a lot of people are hungry for something different,” Carl Pei, Nothing’s CEO and the co-founder of OnePlus, told TechCrunch.
“We have already seen strong conversion rates from users switching to Nothing, and with Phone (3), we are going after that opportunity in a much more focused way. This is the right product, and the right moment, to start scaling in North America,” he added.
Pei is banking on the fact that Nothing’s focus on differentiating the design of its smartphones will attract people who are looking for alternatives to Apple, Samsung, and Google.
Out of the box, Phone (3) will support AT&T and T-Mobile coverage with multi-band support for 4G and 5G — that’s a step up from the limited carrier compatibility of its previous models Phone (2a), Phone (2a) Plus, and CMF Phone 1.
And in Canada, Nothing is partnering with Best Buy to sell its new flagship, along with a new over-ear headphone model, Headphone (1), on retail channels for the first time.
In a video in March, Pei said Nothing Phone 3 will feature premium materials, major performance upgrades, and “software that really levels things up.” He also said the device would be priced around £800, which might translate to around $1,000 in the U.S. That would put the Phone (3) in direct competition with the iPhone 16 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S25+.
According to research firm Counterpoint Research, Nothing’s shipment numbers for 2024 were in the “low-single-digit millions,” and India was its biggest market.
The firm’s senior research analyst, Maurice Klaehne, told TechCrunch that Google and Motorola have made some inroads in the U.S. in the premium devices market, which is dominated by Samsung and Apple. He added that while Pei’s former company, OnePlus, also sells unlocked devices in the U.S., its shipment volumes are low. This means Nothing has an uphill climb ahead in the North American market.
Nothing has so far raised more than $250 million over multiple rounds.
