Carl Pei’s Nothing ad paints a clear picture of the modern OnePlus

Opinion message from

C. Scott Brown

Earlier today, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei finally revealed the name of his new company: Nothing. The in-your-face moniker gets a lot of publicity for the new business. This is a real achievement considering we still have no idea what nothing will create. Pei would only commit to making Nothing a “London-based consumer technology company”.

Without any formal brand commitment, there is hardly anything to say about Nothing. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of interesting things about Nothing’s press release and Pei’s discussions of the company so far. Most importantly, these statements shed more light on the recently departed Pei company than its new venture.

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

Nothing will “re-label someone else’s products”

A Carl Pei interview launched at The edge in tandem with the official announcement of Nothing. The edge tried to dig all possible information about Nothing out of Pei, but he didn’t budge. He had a bit of cryptic information, which we posted here:

“[Nothing is] a completely independent company owned by our founding team and our investors, ”says Pei, with its own R&D department. And despite using contract manufacturers to build its devices, Pei says Nothing is not going to just “rename someone else’s products.”

Anyone who follows the tech world closely will understand this latest line as an apparent dig at OnePlus. While the company has historically borrowed heavily from Oppo and its other sister brands under the BBK banner (and, later, the OPLUS banner), opposition from OnePlus has only grown worse over the years. In 2020, the company ditched all pretenses and released two “new” phones – the Nord N10 and the Nord N100 – which 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 statement to The edge strongly suggests that part of the reason he left OnePlus could have been related to this lax attitude towards the brand’s business identity.

“There’s a reason many products on the market look quite the same.”

Pei continued to throw gas on the fire with another statement to The edge. As he explained how Nothing Will Be Independent, he threw this bomb:

“There’s a reason a lot of products on the market look quite the same,” observes Pei. “It’s because they share a lot of the same components and the same building blocks.”

Again, this seems like a thinly veiled warning from OnePlus. Since this company was founded seven years ago, there has been a lot of control over its connection with other Chinese brands. It is obvious that OnePlus does not operate completely independently. For example, OnePlus’ birthday was December 16, 2013. As of April 2014, the company had already designed and manufactured the OnePlus One. Obviously, a brand new startup couldn’t do this without some serious help.

See also: OnePlus phones: a story of the company’s entire lineup so far

While Pei’s low-key nature prevents us from drawing any real conclusions, I can’t help but think he’s probably become frustrated with OnePlus’ recent moves to become less independent. When Pei co-founded OnePlus, he was only 24 years old. Based on the quotes, this may be the case where he felt that the company would first get a little help from its 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 – suggests that this is a far cry from OnePlus’ current focus.

Is Carl Pei just stoking the flames for the headlines?

I could sit here and dissect everything Pei has revealed today for a long time. Even though we have to extrapolate a bit due to his incredible ability to play his cards close to the chest, one thing is absolutely certain: Carl Pei has left OnePlus and doesn’t hesitate to use it to push Nothing.

With that in mind, it’s very possible that Pei is just playing a PR game. Perhaps he left OnePlus not out of frustration with the company’s management, but for other reasons. Perhaps his statements today are not digs specific to his former employer, but mere warnings from the tech industry as a whole. I do not know.

Pei is a master at building hype.

I know Pei is a master at creating hype. While with OnePlus, his interviews and pre-launch announcements always revealed just enough to make people salivate, but not enough to have a real grip on the product. This is something he put into full practice while preparing for the OnePlus North – a project he led while he was at the company. The resulting public relations campaign for the mid-ranger was as extensive as it was exhausting. Obviously, he’s ready to use those same skills with Nothing.

The trick he’ll need to play now is to use his connection to OnePlus to hype Nothing, but not become addicted to it. Pei is smart enough to know he can’t be “the guy who left OnePlus” forever. He needs to forge a new identity if he wants nothing to be autonomous. After all, if my theories about his leaving OnePlus are correct, the last thing he would want is to be beholden to another brand.