Currently, two mobile operating systems account for almost 100% of the global smartphone market. Development is difficult, and for most phone manufacturers, there are better ways to utilize their resources, especially with Android right around the corner. Although this is a potential differentiator, these companies primarily choose to maintain Google's mobile OS, customized with skins and unique features.
Huawei recently bucked this trend with the release of Harmony OS, which was a direct product of geopolitical restrictions on the use of US products. But despite its vast resources, the Chinese electronics giant struggled mightily as it scrambled to develop its own Android replacement.
Given its market-shaking tendencies, it's perhaps not entirely surprising that London-based Nothing is able to build its own mobile OS from scratch. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday, founder and CEO Karl Pei acknowledged that the company is exploring what a true Nothing OS looks like.
Pei praised smartphones as “the most important gateway to the people we care about and the information we need to consume,” and criticized the duopoly of Google and Apple in the industry.
“We are thinking about how to act here,” he added. “And we'll probably create something of our own. Some kind of operating system.”
The goal of such a move is to expand Nothing's impact on the industry while creating entirely new revenue streams.
“Now we can influence the software side,” Pei explained. “You can change the way people use their devices. It's also very advantageous on the business side. The supply chain, high capital investment, low profit margins, and high risk of the product market fit together, so in a sense, the hardware Being a company sucks. In many ways it's much more comfortable and profitable to have software revenue. But I think the most important thing is to satisfy the consumer. ”
The founder said he believes the recent AI boom has made the process of building a mobile OS much easier. Such technology also goes a long way in providing a level of customization that is missing from existing platforms.
“If you think about the technology stack of what an OS is, I don't think you need to address the lower parts of the stack, like drivers and how the hardware connects to the software and the kernel,” Pei added. “I don't think we need to work on that, but operating systems haven't changed much in 40 years, so we have to work on innovating the user experience. We do a lot of things for them, but they don't use any of that information to improve their experience.”
Pei declined to comment when asked if the company was considering raising funds to pursue such a project.
“I don't think you need that much experience,” he said. This is applied AI, not fundamental. We're not building features, we're not training large language models, we're not building text-to-speech features, etc. That ship has set sail, and it's going to be very competitive. Two or three players will win big, while the rest will lose money. ”
Pei continued, “Whether we get funding or not, this is something we can work on.”
AI will be an important part of such an operating system, but it won't be everything, he explained.
“We shouldn't call this an AI operating system,” he says. “AI is just a tool, and it ultimately comes down to who makes the best product, who creates the best market fit, and who has the best user satisfaction, because without it, Because it won't work.”