OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei left the company in 2020 to start his own venture in the form of Nothing, a year later. Nothing tasted some success with the release of Phone (1) last year, and understandably, the brand wants to make it big in the mobile space with its future products. And to make it big, the OnePlus co-founder is poaching talent from the company he co-founded with Pete Lau.
Nothing has been aggressively poaching talent from OnePlus to make the Phone (2) a big success, according to a report from Inverse. The Carl Pei-led company is attracting talent from pretty much every key vertical, including hardware, software, and marketing. "Seventy percent of the software team at Nothing are from OnePlus," a source close to the company told Inverse. "Thirty percent of the hardware team is from OnePlus."
Sources close to Inverse have also revealed that tech enthusiasts will be Nothing"s "big focus." A lot of key hires were made especially for the purpose of claiming the status of "enthusiast brand," a tag that OnePlus had back in the day.
One of the key elements of the company"s effort to make Nothing an "enthusiast brand" is the software experience. A lot of ex-OnePlus software engineers were hired simply to make Nothing OS "distinct." Nothing OS is a customized version of Android and is currently powering the Phone (1). The next-generation Nothing phone will also be based on the same operating system. One of the significant changes that Nothing could introduce to Phone (2) is a redesigned home screen, as per the report.
Nothing is confirmed to launch Phone (2) this summer, and this time around, it will also be available in the US.
Source: Inverse