The brand known for its central role in virtual reality, notably through its VR Vive headsets, has decided to push the adoption of the metaverse a little further. For its return, HTC has focused on the virtual world, announcing the arrival of a new Android smartphone calibrated for the metaverse.
The return in smartphones for HTC
A return to basics for HTC since in recent years, the company was more recognized in the ecosystem of virtual reality rather than in that of mobile telephony.
The Taiwanese company has not released a smartphone since the HTC Desire 21, dating from early 2021.
Indeed, the 3-letter brand has partially abandoned the global smartphone market since selling a significant part of its phone manufacturing business to Google in 2018.
But on Thursday June 9, HTC announced its return to the world of high-end smartphones with a twitter post.
A return to the tunes of metaverse…
The post relayed by HTC, suggests that the main marketing argument of this smartphone is that it is calibrated for the metaverse.
The brand posted an invitation on Twitter with a poster with a smartphone silhouette accompanied by the “Viverse” logo, the HTC metaverse.
To find out more we will have to wait until June 28, when the brand intends to present the phone to the general public during a virtual event called “Log in to the Future”.
Nevertheless, we have some clues about the brand’s future phone. Indeed, HTC explained during the “Mobile World Congress” 2022 that it planned to release a new high-end smartphone with features dedicated to the metaverse. We do not always know how VR will be integrated since the brand still does not offer a headset for mobile.
HTC is not at its first attempt with the uses of Web3 since the smartphone manufacturer released a high-end cryptocurrency-oriented smartphone in December 2018. The Exodus, a modified version of the HTC U12+, included a native crypto wallet.
The objective of the new phone based on virtual reality will therefore be to bring together the perfect components to ensure the realism of the “Viverse”.
Since the first quarter of 2022, HTC has been pushing hard to compete with Facebook’s META and its VR headset subsidiary Oculus.
To this end, the company has launched “Viverse”, an entity bringing together several metaverses to interact with other people in different themed environments through an HTC VR headset.
A continuity for HTC, which is a pioneer in the field of virtual reality. By developing its own metaverse, the company will now be able to offer its virtual world standards directly on these Vive headsets and perhaps in the future on its smartphones.
However, if you are enthusiastic about the idea of the mobile metaverse, be aware that it is not certain that the “viverse” smartphone will be sold internationally since the brand regularly reserves releases for its country of origin.