Amazon created the Fire Phone to promote its
services and Facebook partnered with HTC on a dedicated smartphone. Both
products turned out to be complete failures, but that isn’t stopping the
developers of viral app TikTok from creating their own device.
According to a report by Financial Times, industry
sources have claimed TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is currently developing its own
smartphone that’ll arrive pre-installed with the company’s range of apps which
also include content aggregation platform TopBuzz and news platform News
Republic.
The smartphone will apparently be created by talent
ByteDance acquired earlier this year from Chinese smartphone brand Smartisan.
Details about the design and specs haven’t yet been revealed, but the device
will most likely focus on the budget segment and teenage users. After all,
TikTok is most popular in markets such as India and China, where cheaper
devices are the best-sellers.
It’s unclear at this stage if ByteDance will try to
tackle the European and US markets, but if it does so the device could be met
with a lukewarm reception just like Amazon and Facebook’s offerings from years
ago.
