There were rumors that ByteDance, the company that owns the very popular TikTok app, is going to make its own smartphone. ByteDance has officially confirmed that it’s indeed working on a smartphone of its own. The company has already expanded into messaging and might even be thinking about launching its own music streaming service, so this hardly comes as a surprise.
ByteDance’s work on a new smartphone is the continuation of earlier Smartisan plans. It had made a deal with Smartisan earlier this year and acquired a number of its employees and patents. A spokesperson for ByteDance told Reuters that the smartphone will aim to “satisfy the needs of the old Smartisan user base.”
Reports have also suggested that this new smartphone will come pre-installed with both apps, the one for music streaming and the one that contributed to the majority of ByteDance’s growth, TikTok.
It remains to be seen if the company will be able to produce a device that people actually want to replace their existing devices with. Companies that primarily run online services haven’t had a good track record with making smartphones, otherwise, there would have been another Facebook phone or Amazon Fire Phone. Only time will tell how ByteDance’s new device does.
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