Pei tweeted the words “Back on Android” yesterday, followed by another tweet singing the praises of Android 12 and tagging Android Senior Vice President at Google Hiroshi Lockheimer. The official Android account joined in a few hours later with “We’ve got a lot to catch up on Carl [Sic],” before the Snapdragon account added its own take: an image of Predator’s mid-air arm wrestle between Dutch and Dillion, but with a third arm added to show the partnership between the trio of companies. Having left OnePlus in 2020 and founded his new venture in 2021, Nothing purchased Andy Rubin’s former company, Essential, in February last year. It also signed a $50 million deal with Qualcomm in October, so a Snapdragon-powered smartphone looked like an inevitability. The only product to come from Nothing so far has been its Nothing Ear (1) earbuds, which received mostly good, if not great, reviews from critics; they also sold over 100,000 units within two months of launch. Expect the Nothing phone to use some of the same design language as the buds, especially when it comes to transparency.
In November, Nothing Vice President and General Manager, Manu Sharma, said the company had five new products in development, adding that Qualcomm would power “many of the devices launching next year.” Exactly when Nothing’s Android phone will launch is unclear, but we can expect to learn more sometime in the next few months.
