Nothing confirms that the phone (1) will not be available in the US

The Nothing phone (1) will not be available in the US. No North American carrier was on the supported list that we saw yesterday when 100 limited edition units were put up for auction. Here is what the company had to say:

“While we’d love to bring phone (1) to the entire community around the world, we’re focusing on home markets, including the UK and Europe, where we have strong partnerships with leading local carriers. It takes a lot to launch a smartphone as you know, from ensuring the handset is supported by the country’s cellular technologies to carrier partnerships and local regulation, and as we’re still a young brand we need to be strategic about it,” said Nothing in a statement to PCMag.

Not ready for US market – One of the company officials

Verizon does not allow phones on its network that are not on its whitelist. Similarly, AT&T enables VoLTE only for select phones. And that is effectively a ban, since without VoLTE your phone will need to drop down to 3G to make a call and AT&T shut down its 3G network this February. T-Mobile is more open, but it doesn’t use the all of the same bands as European carriers, so coverage will be spotty.

Nothing does have plans to launch a smartphone in the US in the future, but it will need to get at least one major carrier on board first. Founder Carl Pei has done it before, the OnePlus 6 was the first from his former company to sell in the US and Canada with support for several carriers (but not all).

A hundred limited edition Nothing phone (1) units go up on auction today

There the company also revealed that the first 100 units produced will be auctioned off by StockX and all proceeds will go towards a community managed fund.

The auction started earlier today and will end 48 hours later. Again, only 100 units are available and each one has its serial number engraved on the side. If you want a piece of mobile tech history, you will have to make an account at StockX and place a bid.

The bidding started low at just $156 for Nothing phone (1)

The highest bid has already risen to $2,000 (at the time of writing) and will probably keep going up. If you’re interested, here is the phone (1) page on StockX.

The launch event for the Nothing phone (1) will be held on July 12, so only a few details are known at this point. Even the design has not been shown off in full, we have only seen the back and sides. Of course, this auction isn’t about buying a new smartphone as it is about bragging rights and driving attention towards the phone (1).