Ah, the Nothing Phone (1). A smartphone that was teased and overhyped for months has finally been launched. If you have been following the story of the young startup company, you must’ve come across several articles about the Phone (1). We are guilty of doing the same because we have written quite a few articles about the company and its products ourselves. I recommend you go read them if you haven’t already 😉 Having written about the Phone (1) a lot, I consider myself someone with above-average knowledge about the product. And one thing I can say for sure is that the Nothing Phone (1) isn’t a product that is all that hyped up to be. The Phone (1) is just your regular smartphone with a cool rear design. And if you belong to the category of people who find the Phone (1)’s design appealing, but don’t want to invest in the phone itself because it isn’t worth it, here’s some good news for you. Dbrand, a company that makes skins for phones, laptops, and other tech devices, has launched their latest special edition skin, Something. Wouldn’t you rather have Something over Nothing? No. That isn’t the Nothing Phone (1). I am not trying to fool you here. Yes, the Nothing Phone (1) does (kind of) look like an iPhone, but what you actually see here is the iPhone 13 Pro Max in Dbrands Something Skin. Pretty cool, right? Dbrand’s Something Skin collection is a collection of skins and cases that look a lot like the visible internals style of the Nothing Phone (1) rear. You can pair the Something Skins with select iPhones, Pixels, and Samsung devices. Dbrand’s CEO Adam Ijaz, in an interview via email with The Verge, told them that the Nothing phone’s main appeal is its aesthetics. He believes that no one would want to cover the Phone (1) with a case or skin. “If we can’t cover the phone, how do we profit off Nothing?” Ijaz said. Dbrand believes there won’t be a lot of Nothing phones in the wild. Because the Nothing brand is “untested” and “overhyped,” the possibility of a lot of people buying it (like the company hopes for) is pretty low. Despite that being the case, it can be clearly seen that people are interested in the Phone (1)’s looks. Hence the creation of the Something Skin.
Dbrand – The Company and Its Snarky Comments
Dbrand is known for its snarky comments. More often than not, their Sarcastic marketing pokes fun at consumer tech companies. Last year, Dbrand got themselves a cease and desist letter from Sony for releasing side-plate replacements for the PS5. This was after Dbrand egged them on the product page with the message, “Go ahead, sue us.” After receiving the cease and desist, though, Dbrand redesigned the plates. The new faceplates named Drakplates 2.0 do not look like the official ones, and the product page is now headlined: “Checkmate, Lawyers.”
Dbarnd – The Something Skin
The Something Skin line is available now in a limited capacity, and the products that can use this accessory includes the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the Pixel 6 Pro, and the Samsung S22 Ultra. You can get them as a Skin for $24.95 or a grip case for $49.90. The company has mentioned on its Reddit page that cases for additional devices (not exclusive to smartphones) will come based on demand. Dbrand has already confirmed that Nintendo Switch is in the plans. Interestingly, Dbrand has also made a skin for iPhone’s charger. Pretty awesome, right?!? As you can see, the phone cover also comes with military-grade impact protection. Right about now, you might be wondering, “Isn’t this essentially intellectual property theft?” Dbrand put out the following statement on its website which reads: “Some might accuse us of theft. Here’s our counter: we stole nothing. After all, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at internal hardware, thanks to our Teardown initiative. As a result, we’re uniquely qualified to rip off an industrial design aesthetic and “creatively reinterpret” it for other devices. That’s not theft – it’s plagiarism, which is definitely not a crime. We checked.” Also, in a Reddit post, they gleefully mention that they’ve got some lawyers to bribe. It remains to be seen if Nothing will sue Dbrand for Something. But personally, I don’t think they will do anything. Nothing is a fairly young tech company that is trying its best to be relevant on the internet. And for a company like that, isn’t every publicity good publicity? Also, Dbrand’s skins aren’t actually a direct copy of the Nothing Phone (1). Suppose you haven’t noticed already, Dbrand’s Something skin doesn’t have a common pattern denoting the internal components of a phone made for every supported device. The Something skin is unique to every device it is available for. For instance, the Something skin for iPhone 13 Pro Max depicts the internals of the phone, while that of the Google Pixel 6 Pro represents the layout of the components of the actual Pixel 6 Pro. The same goes for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Why did Dbrand make Something Skins? In their Reddit post they mention, “Turns out, it’s kind of difficult to profit off Nothing. A few brave leaps of plagiarism later, we had made something out of nothing.” Of course, the 2D skin doesn’t have the same feel as the Nothing phone (1)’s actual transparent back panel. But you can’t deny the fact that it still pretty cool to look at. And the fact that your phone might get a cover that both protects your phone and gives you a 2D view as to whats inside is pretty exciting to think about. At least it is for me!
What Makes Dbrand Fun
Okay, if there’s one company whose marketing strategy I find hilariously funny yet intriguing, its Dbrands. While most companies lean towards the we respect our customers trait, Dbrand straight up disses its customers, other companies, themselves, and their products almost all the time. They actually throw in the F-bomb quite a lot. Since the company is called Nothing, Dbrand called this initiative Something. And their slogan is “It’s better than Nothing.” If you thought Nothing’s marketing strategy was good then you have to take a look at Dbrand’s. Plus, they throw in quite a lot of Easter eggs. The Easter Egg they added in the Something Skin for example, is ridiculously hilarious! Similar to the Nothing products, you can find in Dbrand’s skin a ‘Something Technology Limited’ logo with the same font. Do you see under that logo, GPS coordinates with the United States written below? This is the Easter Egg Dbrand added in their Something Skin. Where do you think the GPS coordinates, 34.47972001011N 113.3353001040W lead you to? Here’s a hint. It literally points to a place called Nothing! It is also a jab at Nothing tech because they couldn’t launch their phones in the United States. Please tell me I am not the only one who finds all this funny! Anywho, what do you think about Dbrand and their Something Skin? Do you like them? Would you buy them? Tell us in the comments below!
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