Here’s something that seems anything but a guarantee: The way we buy expensive electronics is about to change. Years after the US started moving away from the carrier-based model of phone purchases, it seems we’re moving toward a different kind of subscription model in the form of hardware-as-a-service.
Even with that in mind, this is a strange one – though Nothing since day one has made breaking from orthodoxy a central tenet of its existence.
As we’ve known for some time, the Phone (1) wasn’t destined for the US market – at least not in the traditional way. Today, however, the London-based company has announced that it will be available via a much less traditional route. “The United States represents a market with great potential for nothing, so the company is trying to better understand user needs,” the company said in a note to TBEN.
The “Nothing OS 1.5 Beta” is a $299 program designed to help the company gain more traction in the world’s third-largest smartphone market — a market that’s notoriously hard to crack. The prize includes a Nothing phone that you get to keep even after the program ends at the end of June.
Nothing notes:
Please note that the distributed phones (1) are for testing purposes. While these are final models, devices may not work with all US carriers. Since this is a beta version of the software, users may experience some limitations. Please read the FAQs below before proceeding.
Interested parties can sign up for the program starting today and save themselves ~$173 off the retail price. A little nothing for something, if you will.
