On April 5, 2021, electronics giant LG dropped a surprising announcement: it would exit the smartphone industry entirely. Although this was shocking — it’s not every day that a major smartphone maker stops making phones, after all — it wasn’t altogether unexpected. After years of success in building great Android smartphones, the company’s sales had fallen further and further behind the competition, especially compared to long-time hometown rival Samsung. An exit was likely LG’s only viable option.
This was a sad day for Android fans. Although relatively few people were buying LG’s phones in 2021, the company still commanded deep respect. Not only had it launched some of the most revered phones in Android’s early history — the LG G3, Nexus 4, and LG V10 being some great examples — but it also was well-known as a risk-taker. Take the LG Wing: Launched only six months before the company announced its exit from the industry, it was one of the most genuinely innovative (if impractical) Android phones I’ve ever used. Although not many people wanted the LG Wing, they loved the idea of the company pushing the envelope to keep the industry on its toes.
Today, it’s been nearly four years since LG turned off the lights. Since then, Samsung and Apple (the dominant forces in the industry) have been stagnant, relying on the same designs year over year and, most recently, focusing on AI gimmicks to invigorate sales. Obviously, this slump isn’t just because LG is no longer around, but I’m certain that the lack of a truly innovative competitor isn’t helping matters. It sure would be nice if LG returned to shake things up.
However, there is one company that is doing similar things to what we saw from LG in the past: Nothing.
Nothing is like a more focused LG
David Imel /
Likewise, the Phone 3a series has a new hardware button that launches an AI-powered system called Essential Space. The jury is still out on just how “essential” Essential Space really is, and the placement of the Essential Key kind of upsets me, but once again, it was a total surprise to see it there.
I never know what Nothing is going to do next, which is very exciting.
Even the core design elements of Nothing phones are unique in the industry. The Glyph — the light on the back of its phones — is already iconic and has proven to be anything but a gimmick. The transparent design of its products, the deep aesthetic tie-in of Nothing OS’ look and feel, and even co-founder and CEO Carl Pei’s determination to be a YouTuber make Nothing feel like a company on the bleeding edge — at least far more than Apple, Samsung, Google, and OnePlus.
In fact, I would even argue that the daily risks Nothing takes simply by being the company it is put it ahead of LG in certain respects. As much as we all loved LG, the company was scattershot with its identity. Its policy was much more “let’s throw this random feature/device at the wall and see if it sticks,” which is basically the opposite of Nothing’s refined, laser-focused development of its individual identity. The swan song LG Wing and LG Velvet are perfect examples of this: phones that changed up the formula but left you wondering why the company bothered to do so.
Nothing is like LG in that it takes risks, but it rolls ahead by being much more calculated with those risks than LG ever was.
Finally, Nothing adheres to the Blue Ocean Strategy much more than LG ever did. If you’re not aware, the Blue Ocean Strategy is a theory that successful companies often focus on delivering unique, out-of-the-box products rather than trying to compete directly within a developed market. Despite its innovations, it always felt like LG was chasing Samsung rather than really carving out its own corner of the industry, which is what Nothing is wholly focused on.
LG walked so Nothing could run
C. Scott Brown /
I know the title of this article is a hot take. I am fully aware that Nothing hasn’t been around long enough to earn a place next to LG, nor has it released a phone even half as good as something like the LG V60 ThinQ, the company’s final premium flagship. To put it succinctly, when the definitive history of Android is written, LG will get its own chapter, while Nothing may be a footnote (unless the future holds many more years of success for the brand). I’m saying this because I don’t want anyone to come away from this thinking that I believe Nothing’s contribution to Android is superior or even equal to LG.
But the thing I most remember LG for was the risks it took — risks that Samsung and Apple rarely seem to take. Viewed solely through this lens, Nothing is the obvious successor to LG. It’s the only modern company I can think of that’s steadily pushing the boundaries of smartphone design and being successful in doing it.
Nothing may not be as good as LG, but LG is gone, and Nothing is the most obvious heir apparent.
Of course, Nothing can only do this because of the groundwork companies like LG laid before it. If LG hadn’t been around, Galaxy phones and iPhones would probably be veritable clones of one another because each company wouldn’t have felt any need to push itself to be more unique. In that fictional world, there wouldn’t be any room for a brand like Nothing.
The bottom line, though, is that LG is gone and never coming back. If you miss the exciting things it was doing, as I do, remember to show a little respect to the companies out there that are still trying new things or, at the very least, not just trying to copy Samsung and Apple. Whether you want to buy one of its phones or not, Nothing is one of those brands, and I’m excited to have it around.
