Your fans community is stirred to the price increase

At the beginning of July we welcomed the Nothing Phone (3)a device that marked a turning point In the company for two main reasons: better specifications and higher price. The smartphone is marketed at a price from 799 euros, a significant escalation compared to the rest of the terminals that has been launching Nothing. Users, including the most faithful, They have not fit this price increase well and Carl Pei, CEO of the company, has responded to the greatest criticism of the phone in One of his latest videos. One thing is clear: the trajectory to which Nothing derives has already seen it before.

The perfect storm. The launch of Nothing Phone (3) should have been a moment of celebration for the startup. However, despite the great characteristics of this terminal, of which our partner Ricardo Aguilar has spoken to us in Your analysisCriticisms have not taken long to arrive. The price has been the most prominent conversation issue, a price leap of 150 euros compared to its predecessor, the Nothing Phone (2).

Image: Ricardo Aguilar

Nor is its design exempts from criticism. And despite the fact that the phone has managed to enlive Glyph Matrix. The comments on the YouTube channel of Nothing have been especially hard, something that has led Carl Pei himself to recognize that some employees are being “harassed” by design decisions.

The usual pattern. What Nothing is living is not new in the technological sector. It is the story that is repeated again and again: a brand breaks with aggressive prices, conquers an enthusiastic user base, grows in popularity and, when it reaches some success, economic pressures push it towards the premium segment. The result is inevitable: the complaint of the original fans, who feel betrayed by the drift of a brand that is no longer “yours.”

The PEI case is especially striking. The founder of Nothing comes precisely from OnePlus, where he lived in the first person this same transformation. OnePlus began in 2013 as “flagship killer” with the OnePlus One at 269 euros. Seven years later, the OnePlus 9 Pro It cost more than 900 euros. PEI abandoned OnePlus In part for this new trajectory that OnePlus had taken, in addition to that he wanted to focus on his own project, promising that Nothing would be different.

The ‘different’ has succeeded, although perhaps not in the aspect we would like. And three years later, his flagship already goes for 800 euros. Although as usual in these types of strategies, Nothing also has more competitive phones in price, such as His range ‘A’ or its CMF by Nothing.

Growth syndrome. The problem is not in Nothing’s ambition to create better products, but in the inevitable tension between maintaining the original identity and economic realities of growth. PEI says In the video that Nothing has “the highest costs for components compared to everyone else” due to its smallest production scale. A dilemma known in the industry, because to grow you need to improve the product, but improve the product requires raising prices, and raising prices aliene to your original user base.

Fans do not see it justified. Criticisms focus on two fundamental aspects: the phone (3) mounts the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 instead of the most powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite that carry other flagship, and photographic performance is below other direct competitors. For many users, pay the same as for a iPhone 16 or a Galaxy S25 By lower specifications it makes no sense (in the United States, the three devices are officially found from $ 799). PEI has defended that his brand “was never intended for the warriors of the specifications”, but the message is not pending.

And now what. Nothing is at a crossroads Similar to the one that OnePlus lived or Xiaomi. You can continue to raise prices and specialize in the premium niche, risking your ‘rebel’ identity, or trying to maintain the balance between growth and accessibility. At the moment, everything indicates that they have chosen to diversify, with more accessible phones and other products such as headphones. The market response to Phone (3) will be decisive these months to mark the road that the company will take. Meanwhile, Carl Pei seems to be facing the same ghost that once made him leave OnePlus.

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