NEW DELHI: Manu Sharmawho has been spearheading the India operations of smartphone startup Nothing since February 2021, has stepped down from his role as the general manager and vice president. His last working day at Nothing will be on January 20, 2024.
“As we ring in the year 2024 very soon, I am excited to share that I have decided to move on from Nothing. The last 3 years have been very eventful and memorable. This has been the most fortunate & incredible time of my life to build the foundation of the Nothing brand in India from ground zero. The decision to move on came after intensive deliberation due to personal reasons. Nothing India is in an incredibly strong position, has a very robust pipeline of products in 2024 and with a very capable team. I am very excited about the adventure that awaits, but I am not leaving just yet and will be with Nothing India till the end of January 2024,” Sharma shared in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.
The London-based consumer technology company, founded by former OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, brought Sharma on board to help set up Nothing’s operations in India, and drive the growth and business development.
At Nothing, Sharma built India’s strategy and business from scratch, forging key business partnerships online and offline, hired talent and built teams across functions, implemented best-in-class processes and systems and advised on critical investments to grow the brand in India, per his LinkedIn profile page.
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His departure is a setback for Nothing, as it comes at a time when the company is striving to establish itself as a premium smartphone brand within India and globally, in order to compete with leading brands such as Apple, Samsungand OnePlus.
“Manu has decided to leave Nothing India for personal reasons. We thank him for his invaluable contribution to building Nothing in India and wish him the very best of luck,” Nothing India said in a statement to ET.
Sharma is a veteran in the consumer technology space, having spent over two decades working with Samsung Mobile and Hewlett-Packard in India. He quit Samsung in December 2020 after nearly a decade of working across multiple roles, with his last role being the company’s vice president and head of product strategy.
In his last interview with ET last month, Sharma said that Nothing was exploring more product categories under its sub-brand CMF to expand its presence in India. He was also in talks with various contract manufacturers to start local production of its accessories under the sub-brand.
With the CMF sub-brand, Nothing aims to fill the quality gap in developing markets like India, where consumers want affordable quality ecosystem products. Nothing launched the CMF brand keeping developing markets in mind where consumers seek value for money while buying smartphone accessories.
Nothing’s smartphone sales increased 50% in the last quarter over last year. The company has so far launched two smartphones under the Nothing brand. For Nothing TWSthe sales grew more than 100% last year.
“Nothing positioning remains differentiated on the CMF side of things, but the premium segment has crowded since its entry. Hence, CMF differentiation didn’t give enough growth. However, the ecosystem approach worked well for the brand, especially with the TWS.” Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint, told ET. “They have also gained mind share among the gaming community, but to scale, the brand needs a solid go-to-market strategy, which it currently lacks.”
Nothing has less than 1% in the smartphone market and 1% in the TWS segment. It has a 6% share in Rs 5,000 and above TWS market, as per Counterpoint data.
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