Carl Pei explains why he is ‘bullish’ on India amid China slowdown: ‘Biggest smartphone market for…’

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CMF Phone 1 Review: Look beyond the screwsWhile discussing Nothing's recent growth in India, Carl Pei noted that “India is the biggest market" for the company’s smartphones and highlighted that Nothing distinguishes itself as the only brand with true “differentiation" in a market largely dominated by Chinese brands. According to the latest Counterpoint data, Nothing was the fastest-growing brand in India, achieving a remarkable 510% year-over-year growth in shipments in Q3 2024 and entering the top 10 list for the first time.Answering a question about the importance of India for Nothing, Pei said, “It's the biggest market for us for smartphones… There's actually not a lot of competition. If you think about it, 80% of the market share in India.

Are these Chinese smartphone brands. Samsung is like, maybe 15 to 18% and Apple is very small, because it's very expensive." “The Chinese brands, they compete on price and spec. Like good quality, good spec, good performance, good price, but they take 80% of the market share, and there's no differentiation between their products.

So if you were to not look at the logos of those phones, consumers wouldn't be able to tell what's what. We are the only company with differentiation in the market." Pei addedCarl Pei also noted that it was ‘painful’ to set up the 2 manufacturing facilities in Noida and Chennai. He stated that because Nothing makes transparent products, it was a big pain point to stop the dust from entering the product.