More than four years after the surprising acquisition, Nothing’s CEO Carl Pei has finally explained why the company bought smartphone startup Essential, founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, in early 2021.
In a newly published seven-minute video on the company’s YouTube channel, Pei detailed the rationale behind the deal and why Nothing ultimately never used the Essential name, even though that was the original intention.
According to Pei, the team had seriously considered launching its product line under the Essential brand. He called the name “simple” and “elegant,” which led Nothing to purchase all of Essential’s brand assets, including trademarks, the Essential.com domain, and official social media handles.
Essential Phone (1) was closer to being real?
But despite the effort and resources involved, the Essential name was dropped just a few weeks later. Pei said the team realized that using the name could confuse consumers, since Essential had already been associated with a previous smartphone company. “We don’t want to confuse the market that this is a revival [of the Essential brand],” he said.
Pei declined to disclose how much Nothing paid for the acquisition, citing a confidentiality agreement.
Interestingly, “Stone” was another name the company briefly considered before settling on “Nothing.” Pei noted that, like “Nothing,” “Stone” was intentionally ambiguous. But in the end, he argued that brand names aren’t what define a tech company’s success. “Apple is just a fruit,” he said, adding that it was the product quality that ultimately matters.
The video also offered a rare look at the long-abandoned Project Gem, a narrow, candy bar–shaped prototype phone developed by Essential that never made it to market. The device featured an unusually tall 4:1 screen and a vertically stretched keyboard layout.
Even though Nothing never used the Essential name in the way it first imagined, elements of the brand may have quietly returned. The Nothing Phone (3a) and Phone (3a) Pro feature a physical button labeled the “Essential Key,” which activates a software hub called “Essential Space.” This seems like a smart way to use the Essential name, or at least, that’s what we think.
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