Carl Pei, the last man standing
Or is he?
Love him or hate him, you can’t ignore him. You must have heard of Carl Pei even if you’re a casual follower of technology. Once an OPPO corporate guy, Pei got the attention of media and tech enthusiasts after the legendary OnePlus One. Dubbed “flagship killer”, the device truly lived up to its hype and every tech enthusiast wanted one (although the young ones couldn’t afford it) back in the day.
OnePlus One offered the best of both worlds — flagship-grade hardware and customizable software. The device ran Cyanogen OS (CyanogenMod, anyone?) based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box. In a world of laggy Samsung TouchWiz phones and expensive Nexus phones, the device struck the right balance and was truly a breath of fresh air.
Although Pete Lau co-founded OnePlus alongside Carl Pei, Pei was the extroverted one of the duo. He made constant media appearances and was presumably actively involved in the company’s branding efforts. After the infamous turn of events that led to the eventual demise of Cyanogen OS, Pei and team rose to the occasion to develop their own flavor of Android, what we now know as OxygenOS. However, OxygenOS no longer has the core DNA it once had and that’s a story for another day.
If there is one thing that sets Pei apart, it has to be his storytelling expertise. So when Pei parted ways with OnePlus (after the company started leaning towards OPPO) and eventually announced his venture Nothing, it’s safe to say that everyone was intrigued.
During my career transition, I remember thinking, “If Carl Pei can leave a company he co-founded and can start from scratch, so can I”. As naive as it sounds, it was great reassurance that anyone can reinvent their life at any point if there’s a wholehearted effort.
Nothing started with safe bets — earbuds and eventually ventured to smartphones. The Nothing Phone 1 sold in decent numbers and they are now out with their second phone, the Nothing Phone 2. Staying true to the marketing playbook, Carl Pei has made one bold claim with the Phone 2 — iMessage on Android.
On the technological aspects, Nothing is collaborating with a company called Sunbird to make this a reality. The TL;DR version is that you will essentially be logging in to a remote Mac owned by Sunbird to use iMessage on your Nothing Phone 2. Do I think this is a safe bet? Absolutely not. Does it turn heads and create marketing buzz, obviously.
If there is one brand that can pull off this marketing stunt, it is Nothing. Knowing that Apple is less likely to take legal action against the company fearing antitrust implications, Nothing seems to have taken a gamble to see how Apple reacts. While my bets are on Apple silently blocking this workaround behind the scenes, we will have to wait and watch how things unfold.
For the record, I don’t think tech enthusiasts are going to flock to the Phone 2 for its iMessage support. Taking an educated guess, Nothing might be hoping for the other way around. The company presumably wants to attract the average Android-leaning iPhone user who is sticking to iPhones for network effects.
Having said all that, it’s safe to say that Carl Pei is the last man standing who tries to cater to the tech enthusiast crowd while simultaneously trying to scale. Although I don’t consider Nothing an enthusiast’s dream brand, the truth is, there are no options left.
The last time I got excited about an enthusiast brand was OSOM Products, the spinoff startup from former Essential employees, which turned out to be a colossal disappointment. As Marton once said, enthusiast brands will betray you, especially when they are trying to expand their business.
To be honest, it’s been a while since I stopped thinking of custom ROMs or Android mods. The thing that provoked the essay is MKBHD’s recent podcast about CyanogenMod featuring Mishaal Rahman and Stefanie Kondik. You can check out the episode below for a trip down memory lane.
Update: Soon after I hit the Publish button on this one, I got to know that Apple has finally announced RCS support for iPhones. According to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple has announced its plans to offer RCS support for iPhones next year. The report confirms that RCS will exist alongside iMessage (iMessage games are safe, yay!). Guess Nothing’s marketing stunt and Google’s relentless RCS push didn’t go in vain, eh?
Until next time!