A quirky phone maker I love may be having an identity crisis

One of the most interesting smartphone brands to come along over the last few years may be having an identity crisis.

Nothing, the phone maker co-founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, is said to be working on a new series of low-cost devices, which in itself isn’t a bad thing at all.

The trouble is, it already has a line of low and mid-range devices, plus it has just introduced its first flagship model, the Nothing Phone 3.

Why is it considering a new set of phones, when it already seems to have everything covered?

It’s potentially going about a need to give its identity an overhaul in the wrong way.

Lite or T?

New direction with dreary old names

Nothing is rumored to be considering the branding Lite or T for the new range, according to known industry tipster Yogesh Brar, who posted a message about the plans on X.

A Lite phone immediately makes us think of a low-cost, entry-level phone, which is often loosely based on a brand’s top models. Huawei and Honor have used Lite to separate mass-appeal phones from flagships for a while.

If Nothing chose to add “T” to a future phone, it would be a move straight out of OnePlus’s playbook.

However, OnePlus’s T phones were often variations on its flagships, often arriving several months later with updated specs, but brands like Xiaomi and Realme have added T to more mid-range phones.

Either way, neither T or Lite often signifies a top-spec, high-priced phone.

Nothing has always been a lot more creative with its nomenclature than adopting T or Lite.

It currently uses the letter “A” for its midrange phones like the Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro, then drops it for its top models like the Phone 3.

It then keeps its entry-level phones almost entirely separate from them, cleverly using the CMF by Nothing offshoot for its affordable models.

What is a Nothing phone?

We need to be told

Where would a T or Lite phone, or phones, fit in all this? There’s no obvious spot, unless it discontinues or rebrands existing models, and if there’s one thing even the most ardent Nothing fan will admit, it doesn’t really need any more phones.

What it needs is to better educate us on what a Nothing phone is.

The Phone 3 shows Nothing’s communication problems. It calls it a flagship, but it’s really a Nothing Flagship, which is different from a Samsung or Apple flagship phone.

Many people have very clear expectations of what a flagship phone should be, and because the Phone 3’s on-paper spec doesn’t really meet them, it gets confusing.

There’s a risk that people will think they’re being misled when, in reality, it’s a request for more information.

Pei felt the need (or wanted the YouTube clicks) to react to early reviews of the Phone 3, which often talked about the spec situation along with the challenging design, and he admitted the Phone 3 isn’t for everyone.

The thing is, it is for everyone, but Nothing hasn’t quite figured out the way to tell us in a way that doesn’t cause confusion.

Nothing had another misplay in the past with the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, a confusing phone with no obvious place in the range, and deciding to release the mid-range 3a phones before the top Phone 3.

Throwing more phones at the situation hasn’t helped in the past.

Sales performance problems?

It’s not to do with the phones

If Nothing is considering adding more phones, or changing the names of the ones it already has, it suggests the models it has aren’t doing that well. Brar suggests as much in his X post, saying, “Pro models are just not cutting it.”

Let’s be clear, if Nothing’s phones aren’t doing as well as the company hoped or expects, I don’t think it’s to do with the devices.

Not having established carrier relationships in the US doesn’t help, but strong performance, unique designs, great software, and reasonable prices should make them really desirable, along with a charismatic, social media-savvy CEO and fun ways of engaging with its most passionate fans.

What seems to be happening is that Nothing is working out how to move on from its plucky, slightly mad startup roots and enter its true mainstream contender phase.

To do this, it needs to replace its old persona with a new one, and it needs to work out how to effectively tell us about it, all without losing one of the reasons I like Nothing: its quirky personality.

While I can’t say how it should achieve this, I will say I don’t think releasing more phones with new names is the answer.