After ear (1) earbuds, what's next for Nothing in India? Manu Sharma reveals

Nothing has cooked up a fair amount of traction in India despite being a baby in a world dominated by age-old players. With the Nothing ear (1) earbuds, the company got its shot at fame early on, selling truckloads of these TWS earbuds. Even though most of its success rested on the hype generated by its founder Carl Pei, Nothing played its cards right and got the sales it had hoped for. But what’s next?

To know that, HT Tech and Nothing’s Manu Sharma sat down for a brief conversation. While he was reluctant on giving an early look into its upcoming products, he gave enough to make us keep an eye on this startup. And yes, those cheesy “Nothing” puns don’t bother the brand; they do it themselves too.

What and when’s the next from Nothing?

Despite the rumours of a Nothing smartphone and powerbank going around, Manu did not reveal any product details, but confirmed that there are over five products under development, and all will be revealed next year. “We are focused on building and developing an ecosystem of connected devices. To accelerate its mission, Nothing is scaling at speed with 5+ more devices in development,” said Sharma.

Sharma also said that Nothing will eventually try out a host of other product categories, but nothing revealed in particular for now. Maybe laptops, or IoT smart home products? We will have to wait and see.

Nothing's sold more earbuds than the OG iPod!

Sharma says that the brand managed to sell 4.8K units of Nothing ear (1) earbuds in the first 2 minutes of its sale. The earbuds also helped Nothing rank among the top three brands in the premium TWS segment with a 7 percent share of the market, as the recent Counterpoint report suggests. That looks good by all means, but the train hasn’t stopped yet.

”We have 320k orders, shipped 180k, while supply is still catching up with demand. Our total forecast is 600k. For context, the first iPod did around 400k,” says Sharma.

What’s in it for Indians?

Sharma repeatedly stressed that India played a key role in its overall global sales. The ear (1) earbuds have sold the most in the Indian market. That mostly has to do with a universal compatibility with products from all brands. And, Nothing wants to maintain that, building an ecosystem of products that works with everything.

Sharma says that the brand managed to sell 4.8K units of Nothing ear (1) earbuds in the first 2 minutes of its sale. The earbuds also helped Nothing rank among the top three brands in the premium TWS segment with a 7 percent share of the market, as the recent Counterpoint report suggests. That looks good by all means, but the train hasn’t stopped yet.

”We have 320k orders, shipped 180k, while supply is still catching up with demand. Our total forecast is 600k. For context, the first iPod did around 400k,” says Sharma.

What’s in it for Indians?

Sharma repeatedly stressed that India played a key role in its overall global sales. The ear (1) earbuds have sold the most in the Indian market. That mostly has to do with a universal compatibility with products from all brands. And, Nothing wants to maintain that, building an ecosystem of products that works with everything.

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“India is an important market for Nothing and earlier this year we set up our first regional hub in Delhi NCR. We already have on-boarded key people in sales, marketing and operations and shall continue to hire new talent to further strengthen our operations. India will be a part of all our global product launches,” says Sharma.

Nothing to remain an online-only brand

Sharma says that the pandemic situation has pushed everyone towards e-commerce and as a result, it has helped a new company like Nothing reach wider audiences in India. Nothing currently wants to stick with Flipkart as its sales and distribution partner, while it focuses on getting unique products to out.