Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear A will be launched by the company next month, the UK startup led by OnePlus Co-Founder Carl Pei announced on Friday. The firm’s third generation of truly wireless stereo (TWS) audio products was previously expected to make its debut as the Nothing Ear 3, but the company announced that it was resetting its naming strategy for its products, starting with the successor to the Ear 2 TWS headset. Nothing will also launch a second audio product with an “a” suffix, similar to the Phone 2a.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Nothing confirmed that it will launch two new products on April 18 — the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear A. The Nothing Ear is expected to succeed the Nothing Ear 2 that was launched in 2023. It is currently unclear whether the Nothing Ear A will arrive as a cheaper version of the Nothing Ear.
We started Nothing with audio in 2021 and since our very first product, we’ve relentlessly refined our design and engineering with every new addition to our audio product suite.
2024 is the year we’re unveiling the ultimate iteration of Nothing Audio with two new products that… pic.twitter.com/bRrFzk9wUl
— Nothing (@nothing) April 5, 2024
It is interesting to see that Nothing is planning to release audio products with the alphabetical suffix — the company launched the Nothing Phone 2a, a mid-range smartphone that arrived months after the debut of the more expensive Phone 2 last year.
If the upcoming Nothing Ear A is launched as a cheaper version of the Nothing Ear, it could end up competing with Nothing’s own sub-brand CMF that also sells affordable TWS audio products that are priced between Rs. 2,499 and Rs. 3,499 in India. Alternatively, the company could launch the Nothing Ear around the Rs. 10,000 mark and the Ear A could be positioned around the Rs. 5,000 mark.
Nothing says that the decision to reset its naming strategy to exclude numbers was taken after the company reached a three-year milestone, adding that it wants to centre the focus around the product. We can speculate that subsequent models will include the year that the product was launched, in order to differentiate them from their predecessors.