Carl Pei, founder of hardware startup Nothing, explains why established smartphone incumbents avoid distinctive design choices like transparent casings.
“But I think, when you're a niche player, you can be more differentiated in your hardware design. But when you're a mess, you gotta sell to everybody, from the youngest person to the oldest person, Types of different professions. So you cannot take a lot of risk with your design anymore. If you take too much risk, that's going to reduce your market share.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
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More from Carl Pei
Opinion
Pei criticizes Apple as a top-down, command-and-control 'iCompany'
“And it's a big contrast if you're a collective versus the behemoth Apple, which is more like the iCompany. It's like command and control, top down, ivory tower style, iPad, iPhone, iMac, iEverything.”
Carl PeiApr 6, 2023▶ 31:22Building Hardware and Taking on the Phone Giants with Carl Pei
Insight
Pei: Non-hardware tech giants fail at hardware because it's a side hustle
“If you're a company who's already making a lot of money on non-hardware stuff, then hardware kind of becomes like a side hustle for you, and you might not be that rigorous in how you run it.”
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Insight
Carl Pei: Technology is the only real moat for a tech company
“Having said that, it's a, it's not a very strong moat, design differentiation. So as the company grows and we start generating more and more free cash flow, that needs to be reinvested into technology. Technology is the only real moat for a tech company.”
Carl PeiApr 6, 2023▶ 11:56Building Hardware and Taking on the Phone Giants with Carl Pei
Opinion
Carl Pei: Tech fans feel Apple has lost its magic
“There's a lot of people like us who are tech fans out there and who remember being Apple fanboys and fangirls and now just feeling like the magic is lost and just wanting to recreate the magic.”
Carl PeiApr 6, 2023▶ 34:53Building Hardware and Taking on the Phone Giants with Carl Pei
AssertionNot checkable as stated
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“Because the mobile user experience has not really changed for the last, I don't know how many years, 20 years. Even with Symbian, right? Even with pre-Symbian devices, there were icons for apps. And when you click through the icons, you got like a full screen …”
Carl PeiApr 6, 2023▶ 13:13Building Hardware and Taking on the Phone Giants with Carl Pei
Opinion
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