Nothing CEO Says His Smartphone Startup Is Targeting Gen Z

The smartphone industry is a tough one for newcomers to interrupt into. It is suffering from failed makes an attempt.

However Carl Pei, the CEO of Nothing, a smartphone startup now valued at $1.3 billion, thinks he could have discovered a method in.

“Our customers are very younger,” Pei mentioned on Alex Heath’s Access podcast this week. “It is just about not possible to be in style amongst all people on the earth on the very starting, so we obtained to choose a lane.”

Pei mentioned the corporate has discovered that its merchandise resonate finest with youthful shoppers who’re motivated by a need to “be completely different” and discover their “personal id” within the units they select.

Apple’s model energy is as robust because it as soon as was amongst younger generations, he mentioned, as a result of they did not develop up watching its rise.

Pei mentioned his firm’s common consumer is 26 years outdated. In the meantime, for instance, Samsung customers are, on common, 45 years outdated, he mentioned. For Apple, about 70% of its customers fall between the ages of 18 to 44, in keeping with 9 to five Mac, a information web site that covers Apple merchandise.

As of the primary quarter of 2025, Samsung took the lead within the international smartphone market, with Apple coming in an in depth second. They’re the highest two, adopted by a handful of Chinese language firms.

Nothing, in the meantime, is carving a distinct segment of its personal. The five-year-old firm now has between 800 and 900 workers and is on monitor to earn $1 billion in gross sales this yr, Pei mentioned.

Nothing’s smartphone fashions, like Telephone 2 and Telephone 3, vary in worth from lower than $300 to $700. The telephones have an identical construction and design to the iPhone, aside from a transparent again that exposes a few of their inside {hardware}. In Enterprise Insider’s review of the Phone 2, Antonio Villas-Boas known as the design “putting” with a “surprisingly good digicam” and provides stable efficiency regardless of its barely older processor.

Pei would not anticipate Nothing to outpace Apple anytime quickly. He says pacing is essential and is considering how the 2 firms can coexist.

He mentioned Nothing is exploring “new type elements” that do not compete with Apple’s merchandise, however can be utilized at the side of them. Along with telephones, the corporate at the moment provides watches, headphones, and attire.

Nothing didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.