July will be a big month for British tech company Nothing, which is not only launching its "first true flagship," the Nothing Phone 3, but is also unveiling a new audio product, the Nothing Headphone 1.
The Headphone 1 is due to launch on July 1, Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei said onstage at SXSW London on Thursday. "It's our first over-the-head headphones," he said. "A lot of our users have been asking for it."
Teasers and rumors about the headphones have been circulating online for some time now, with the Nothing product design team claiming in a video that this new product will rival Apple's AirPods Max for sound quality, while costing a lot less. There is not much else to share about the headphones at this stage, although last month Nothing said it partnered with British audio company KEF on upcoming products. At this time, Nothing has not confirmed whether the Headphone 1 is one of those products.
Audio is hardly a new category for Nothing. In fact, the company's first foray into the hardware world was with the Nothing Ear 1, earbuds that captured our attention with their striking transparent design. The company's focus on design is "a necessity" as it was late to market and needed a way to differentiate itself, Pei said. "We call it technical warmth," he said, describing Nothing's design language. "At first glance, these parts look really mechanical, (but) once you dig a little bit deeper, there's a lot of fun elements."
Pei also gave a hint into what we can expect from the company in the future. "The smartphone is the most important product today, but that doesn't mean it's going to be the most important product forever," he said. Pei is interested in seeing the new form factors tech companies are bringing to market, but he would ideally like Nothing to be the company that finds the next killer tech product.
"Success for me in the next five years would be us really finding that new form factor," he said.