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Comment by ingenieros | Hacker News Reader

> How do these managers get jobs in these big name companies?

Nothing is very far from what I would consider a "big name company" They are actually a really small joint venture between Carl Pei and Teenage Engineering. This whole iMessage fiasco is exactly why I have such a hard time taking Carl seriously in anything he does. He seems more concerned with creating hype through smoke and mirrors than in releasing anything truly innovative and substantial.

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> They are actually a really small joint venture between Carl Pei and Teenage Engineering.

That's just 'Nothing' the company making the phone, but the iMessage for Android app was built by Sunbird, a different company. It's written in the article.

Agree that these companies are more like Juicero, built on hype and false trust to sell mediocre products that aren't special.

It is a big name company though. Not a lot of companies have access to a supply chain and logistics to design and ship products like they do worldwide.

Worldwide? Nothing Phone 1 wasn't even available for purchase in the U.S and I've yet to see any of their other products being sold throughout latam. They operate like the infamous street fashion brand Supreme with limited "drops" in carefully chosen markets to generate hype through manufactured scarcity.

LOL you can find lots of small companies in China you have never heard of that make (better) phones and ships to dozens of countries. Nothing isn't any better than those companies other than marketing.

Is Teenage Engineering actually a part of a joint venture or are they just design consultants used to pump brand appeal?

According to this old article they are much more than simple consultants: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/24/22298802/nothing-teenage-...

"Pei says that Teenage Engineering is one of Nothing’s founding partners, and will drive the design aesthetic at his new company."

Up until now I had no idea TE had anything to do with Nothing phones.

I like their mini synths. Never knew that they are involved with phones or anything beyond small synths tbh.

They've designed a bunch of stuff for IKEA and other brands: https://teenage.engineering/designs

They have an extremely expensive field table to put your extremely expensive TE devices on.

They're part of the venture and some of their design team seems to have moved over to lead design there.

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