Nothing spent most of the previous year teasing its Ear (1) earphones, and it appears to have worked. On the first anniversary of Nothing’s founding, creator Carl Pei wrote a message of gratitude to the community growing up around the company. Pei offers some sales figures for Ear (1) in that letter, and they’re impressive.
Pei began his letter by stating that the company had had a “long and wonderful year.” The goal for the first year, according to Pei, was to establish brand recognition for Nothing, but it appears that the company has accomplished that goal and more. According to Pei, Nothing has received 320,000 orders for the Ear (1) earphones, with little over half of them being fulfilled.
“Our initial product, the ear (1),” Pei wrote, “broke through the congestion to become one of the year’s most anticipated product introductions.” “It’s gotten rave reviews from both consumers and the media, and it’s selling like hotcakes thanks to a launch video that’s gotten over a million views.” We have 320k orders, of which 180k have been shipped, and supply is still catching up to demand. The total number of people we expect is 600,000. For comparison, the first iPod sold roughly 400k units.”
The difference, of course, was that when Apple released the iPod, it was already a well-established firm. On the other hand, nothing has managed to generate impressive sales when you consider that it was just a firm with an unusual name that makes talking about it extremely tough at this time last year.
While most of Pei’s letter is devoted to thanking employees and consumers, there is one more point worth noting. “To add to the excitement, we’ve also had a large incumbent attacking us in the supply chain trying to limit our access to crucial components,” Pei says of how Nothing got to the point of actually launching the Ear (1) earphones. That should be seen as a mark of respect.”
To our knowledge, Pei didn’t say which company it is, and there hasn’t been any public disclosure of supply chain wrongdoing before today. Even if this is the only thing Pei has to say about it in the end, the notion that an established firm in the space saw Nothing as a danger so early in its life is noteworthy.
While we don’t know what the second year holds for Nothing, there has been speculation that the firm may join the smartphone market with its gadget. We’ll have to wait and see if those reports are true next year, so stay tuned.
Source: nothing
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