Smartphones in crisis: Nothing is splitting up
The smartphone brand Nothing, founded by former OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, wants to spin off its budget offshoot CMF and continue to operate as an independent company. The split is a response to the storage crisis.
Nothing boss announces CMF’s independence
Nothing has been active primarily in India for several years with its subsidiary brand CMF by Nothing. CMF is now set to become independent and largely owned by Indian shareholders, even if Nothing wants to retain a stake. Nothing boss Carl Pei announced this today. CMF should be able to operate independently through the spin-off and the apparently planned partial sale to Indian shareholders, said Pei. The company specializes in low-cost smartphones and other electronic products for end customers, although in some cases devices that were sold under the Nothing brand in Europe and other regions have also been sold as CMF products several times in the past with slight adjustments and changed branding.
100 million devices per year planned in the long term
Pei apparently hopes that India can ensure CMF’s survival with its continued high demand for smartphones in the lower price sector. With the spin-off, CMF is primarily intended to benefit from the fact that a complete supply chain for the production of smartphones and other small electronic devices has now been created in India, even if more investment still needs to be made in development and research for new products, said Pei.
In the long term, CMF aims to become a leading global brand, with Pei setting an ambitious target of 100 million devices sold per year. With such a massive increase in volume, the company could then have more influence over suppliers and invest more in developing software, cameras and AI capabilities across a significantly larger number of devices, he also said. It was only in July that there were extensive reports that Nothing wanted to largely withdraw its presence in a number of countries.
It remains to be seen to what extent the spin-off from CMF and the resulting independence of the brand is a confirmation of the press reports that were vehemently denied at the time. Shortly after mid-June, Nothing also reported drastic developments in the memory market, which are currently making it no longer worthwhile to build cheap smartphones. At that time, the introduction of a new model from the budget subsidiary CMF, planned for 2026, was canceled without further ado. In his announcement, Pei did not yet reveal when the future independent CMF brand would introduce its first device.
