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This is an exciting time to be alive! The adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology and the spread of awareness regarding their benefits are increasing each day. And while it is pretty surprising that HTC, one of the biggest technology companies, has decided to take at least a small step into this crypto-revolution with the launch of an NFT-based smartphone. This was confirmed by the CEO of HTC, Cher Wang, on Twitter.
Flagship HTC Phone
The HTC metaverse-ready phone is expected to be unveiled at an event later this year. As revealed by Charles Huang, the Asia-Pacific area general manager of HTC, during an interview with Digitimes at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
According to the report, a high-end Android phone with an emphasis on the metaverse has been developed by Taiwanese firm Huang. It is expected that the phone will have some capabilities that are only available in the digital realm. Virtual and augmented reality applications would look great on it, as well.
They aim to unveil it in April of that year. HTC has yet to reveal whether or whether it plans to sell the phone in Europe or if it would instead focus on Asia. Charles Huang did not disclose any further information regarding the phone’s features or characteristics.
HTC, a once-dominant player in the smartphone market, has been steadily supplanted by Samsung, Xiaomi, and Apple. Recently, the brand has been a lot quieter than usual. Unlike the smartphone market, HTC has chosen to focus on virtual reality headsets.
HTC still releases phones now and again, but these aren’t the high-end models that the company was known for. However, it doesn’t appear that the firm is given up on its blockbuster ambitions.
A “metaverse phone,” according to HTC Asia-Pacific General Manager Charles Huang, will be released in the next month, according to Digitimes (h/t: WinFuture). A phone having virtual and augmented reality applications is likely what this refers to.
According to reports, the phone will be a high-end model, although we aren’t clear if this means it will be a flagship model or if it will just be more expensive than the company’s most recent (budget-level) models.
HTC’s “metaverse phone” comes when Google and Samsung have given up on their virtual reality projects. Both Google and Samsung canceled support for their respective Daydream VR mobile platforms in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Forecast
We’re not holding our breath for an AR/VR phone from HTC if Google and Samsung can’t, even though HTC’s Vive business has made VR one of the company’s few strengths recently. Its Vive headsets are well-known in the PC world, and its VivePort VR platform has a ton of material.
Closing Thoughts
HTC plans to launch the first-ever phone with native support for non-fungible tokens (NFT) in a world-first, major smartphone manufacturer. While other providers have integrated NFT functionality via software, this would make HTC the first company to produce hardware that supports NFT natively.
