Nothing has been riding high lately with the release of its second smartphone, the Nothing Phone 2. Just under three years following the company’s launch, Nothing has released five products — three earbuds and two phones. The brand has become synonymous with quality design at a low price, which is an ideology that doesn’t seem to exist as much as it used to in today’s tech world. Nothing CEO Carl Pei doesn’t want his company to be viewed as a budget line, so in its Q2 Community Update video, Pei announced a new sub-brand called CMF by Nothing that focuses primarily on wallet-friendly tech.
In the video, Pei says that CMF by Nothing products will share much of the same DNA with Nothing products, with both brands focusing on design and user experience. However, where CMF differs is centered around its design philosophies and pricing. Pei says that he wants CMF designs to be “timeless” to attract more buyers into the overall Nothing brand in addition to quality that is “very difficult to find” in its price segment.
This is not the first time we’ve seen the CMF by Nothing brand in the wild, though. In June, we wrote about a trademark that was filed with the exact same name that was announced today. In addition, it was filed underneath the Smartwatches category in the Bureau of Indian Standards certification listing.
So, what does CMF stand for? Pei asked on Twitter if anyone had figured it out yet. While there has been no official confirmation so far as to what it’s an acronym for, many believe it stands for “Color, Material, Finish,” which is an area of industrial design focused specifically on the identity of products and their aesthetics. That would make sense with the sub-brand built around a focus on providing timeless designs.
The odds of a smartwatch being released under the CMF brand are fairly high based on previous information. Many other types of products could fit under the brand, too. New, cheaper earbuds could potentially slide underneath the CMF product umbrella, running on simultaneous releases with the main Nothing Ear line. How about smart home devices and power banks? No matter what road it goes down, it’s pretty exciting to see Nothing branch out even more from its brilliant price points and offer new premium-feeling tech at mouth-watering prices.
