ICYMI: Nothing addressing issue on use of professional stock photos for Phone 3

The company has said the images were placeholders that should have been updated.

Nothing Phone 3's ads, Photo from: TheVerge

Photos were replaced after mass production

Tech company Nothing said it is already looking into the issue of using professional stock photos to promote the camera on its new Phone 3.

According to The Verge report, this involves five sample images that were featured on in-store demo units of Nothing’s phone. These include shots of a spiral staircase, a car headlight, a glass, a window, and a woman looking towards the camera.

One of the photographers anonymously confirmed to The Verge that it wasn’t taken using the Phone 3. In fact, Nothing had purchased the image license via the Stills stock photo marketplace.

Photo from: TheVerge

Roman Fox, another photographer who captured the car headlight, also confirmed to Android Authority that Nothing had paid for his image, which was taken in 2023 using a Fujifilm XH2s camera.

Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis has issued a statement about the issue.

He explained that an initial version of the live demo units (LDU) needs to be submitted with placeholders around 4 months before launch, to be implemented and tested as we ramp up towards mass production.

Once mass production, the placeholder images are replaced with photo samples through a new version of the LDU, along with final product renders and videos.

In this case, it was brought to our attention that some live demo units' stock imagery were not updated. We are actively rectifying this and working with our promoters to ensure all LDUs reflect the latest version, Evangelidis said.

The official said an internal investigation is also ongoing to make sure such an issue doesn’t happen again.

What do you guys think?

Via: The Verge