HTC's VR and metaverse division Viverse hinted at a phone-shaped graphic in a tweet earlier in June without providing additional information or specifications. With its most recent phone release occurring in January 2021, the Taiwanese consumer electronics company has shifted its emphasis to developing VR gear.
According to Taiwanese tech publication Industry Next, HTC's general manager for APAC, Chaoying Huang, stated in March that the company plans to release a metaverse-related phone in 2022, reiterating that HTC was still in the smartphone business. Google purchased a portion of HTC's smartphone hardware division in 2017 for US$1.1 billion.
One of the first phone manufacturers to test blockchain technology is HTC. Even after the news of the new HTC phone's launch, not much is known about it. Some of the unsolved issues are whether the phone would be a flagship model and whether it would have a distinctive camera or new sensors. Other details about the phone are unknown. However, it is likely to support the Vive Flow VR headset and native AR software. It's also important to note that HTC's metaverse brand, Viveverse, has debuted AR and VR hardware to support the Viveverse experience.