HTC will market in April what it calls the «first metaverse phone«. A high-end smartphone in which you will use your experience with virtual reality technologies.
HTC wants to recover lost space in the mobile industry. It was one of the greats in the sector at a time when Nokia, Motorola or BlackBerry ruled, but like them it could not keep up with the pace set by Apple and the Chinese manufacturers that work with Android.
Now, the head of HTC Asia-Pacific has announced the April launch of a “metaverse phone.” A mobile device that would bring the general public closer to that shared virtual space yet to be developed, but that companies like Facebook want to turn into the large scale communication platform of the world Wide Web.
The Taiwanese manufacturer still has a small catalog of smartphones, but its market share is minimal. However, it has become one of the main players in virtual reality devices with the Vive platform and its mobile metaverse is supposed to stand out precisely because of this, the execution of VR/AR applications.
Other bigger ones have tried and failed. Google discontinued its Daydream virtual reality platform at the end of 2019. The largest mobile producer, Samsung, also exited the market by discontinuing its Gear VR efforts. Another example of the difficulties in promoting these technologies in consumption is Apple’s delay in entering this market.
Metaverse Phone = HTC Vivero
HTC co-founder and chairwoman Cher Wang recently outlined the company’s version of the metaverse, which she calls Viverse. Really, it’s no different than what other companies like Facebook or Microsoft are promising at this stage: a shared virtual world that uses virtual reality, augmented reality, avatars and the Internet.
We will see. Back in the day he produced very good mobiles and has a great deal of experience in VR after development for his Vive platform. In theory, you don’t need a dedicated phone to access the metaverse, but we’ll soon see what HTC can produce.
