Nothing has confirmed that it intends to expand into the United States, including bringing its next smartphone to the market later in 2023.

Nothing never officially launched the Nothing Phone (1) in the U.S., something that it half-fixed when it opened a beta of sorts recently. That allowed people to pay $299 to get a phone that didn't support 5G on AT&T or Verizon as part of a program that always seemed to be the precursor to something bigger. Now, we know what that was.

Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei has confirmed to Inverse that the company will make a big push into the U.S. and that will include the Phone (2) - a handset expected to arrive in late 2023. In fact, “we decided to make the U.S. our No. 1 priority in terms of markets,” Pei says.

As for why Nothing has taken this long to look to the U.S. for new customers, Pei says that it was all about building the business and not having to deal with carriers.

“When you make a smartphone for the U.S. you need to work with the carriers on certification and adapting some of their features into your OS,” Pei told Inverse. “We didn't have the resources for that before and now we do.”

Pei goes on to say that Nothing's research says that "consumers as a whole are quite bored and indifferent" in terms of the phones that are sold in the United States today. He thinks that Nothing has the answer.

As for what we can expect from the Phone (2), Pei was understandably coy. He wouldn't be drawn on the industrial design or the specifications that we can expect, but he did admit that Nothing is looking to open more retail stores internationally. And that'll mean shipping more products to fill them with.

“The store is already paying for itself operationally,” Pei says. “But in order for it to pay back the initial investment in designing and decorating the store, I think we need a slightly richer product portfolio with more products.”