Nothing has made a couple of big reveals over the past few days, with a new Nothing Phone (3a) Lite coming up quickly, but also the reveal that the company will start pre-installing apps and including lock screen ads on select devices to subsidize their hardware cost.
Nothing OS has been praised for years for its clean, bloatware-free build, but that’s apparently soon to change.
Responding to the quiet release of “Lock Glimpse” last week, a feature that effectively delivers off-by-default lock screen ads on the Nothing Phone (3a) series, Nothing says this will be a strategy moving foward.
On select “non-flagship” devices, Nothing says it will start offering Lock Glimpse, while also pre-installing apps on some devices. This, as the company explains, helps to subsidize the cost of the hardware on Nothing Phone devices. These changes would take the form of adding “carefully considered” pre-installed third-party apps on Nothing devices while also implementing Lock Glimpse on future devices, presumably in an on-by-default state.
Nothing explains:
One of the biggest challenges for any new entrant is managing the BOM (Bill of Materials) cost, which is higher than that of established players. On top of this, most brands also have software-based revenue streams, the most straightforward being pre-installed partner apps and services. This is a common approach across the industry, including for established brands like Samsung.
Moving forward, on select non-flagship devices, we’ll start including a carefully considered selection of third-party partner apps and services that don’t disrupt the Nothing OS experience you love. These are apps most people install on day one, like Instagram. They’re not random – we’re working with popular platforms many of you already use daily, and in some cases, these integrations can even enhance performance or provide tighter experiences, such as improved camera or sharing features.
Nothing further commits that it will “keep partner apps minimal and easy to remove,” “be upfront” about what is pre-installed, and “give you full control over features like Lock Glimpse.”
That brings us to the reveal that Nothing Phone (3a) Lite is launching later this week.
There have been rumblings about this device over the past few weeks, but this is a rare example of a Nothing smartphone not leaking in full before its launch. The naming implies this will be a low-priced smartphone, but the exact details are not yet clear. In a teaser, Nothing says the device will launch on October 29 and hints that there will be at least some remnant of Glyph – i.e., at least one tiny LED – in the design.
It’s unclear if this device will include any of Nothing’s new changes, but the timing certainly suggests that might be the case.
More on Nothing:
- Nothing OS 4.0’s latest beta update adds optional lock screen ads to your phone
- Nothing Phone rolling out call recording that works with a physical button [Video]
- Nothing launches ‘Essential’ which generates ‘apps’ with AI and, one day, will be an OS [Video]
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