Nothing CEO Carl Pei was the co-founder of OnePlus, and you can see a lot of similarities between the two companies, especially in the marketing department. Nothing has run a OnePlus-esque teaser campaign for its upcoming phone (1), revealing small (or big) tidbits of information here and there seemingly every other day, ensuring it stays in the news cycle for weeks. That’s exactly what OnePlus used to do, and it turns out Nothing will apply yet another early OnePlus strategy for its first smartphone: the invite system.
Love it or hate it, it was undeniably unique when it made its debut with the OnePlus One, and the Nothing phone (1) will “initially” be sold through invites only. You can say what you want about Carl Pei, but he sure is among the best marketers and hype builders in the mobile space.
The information about the invite system comes toward the end of the video above (starting at 13:20), which Nothing premiered today. The video details the design of the phone and its manufacturing process, letting us know that recycled aluminum is used.
The invite system will seemingly allow Nothing to sell its products faster since it won’t wait until it accumulated a lot of phones in stock in order to start shipping them. It will also make sure the first people who get a phone (1) are those “in the community”, the “people who deserve it the most”. Once “they’re happy”, the company is “more than happy to open wider”.
