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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Video. A six inch display with quad-HD+ resolution. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. Six gigabytes of RAM and 128GB of storage. HTC's early access Exodus 1 is available for pre-order at a price of 0.15 bitcoins or 4.78 ether tokens, which translates to about $960, and is expected to be shipped by December. That huge price tag places it on similar footing with premium smartphones in the market like Apple's iPhone XS and Samsung's Galaxy Note 9. But it's important to take note of the cryptocurrency market's notoriety for volatility; bitcoin's price, for example, has been known to climb or fall hundreds of dollars in value within hours. "It's definitely important that there's this excitement and this huge crypto bubble and people are paying attention and buying bitcoin and ether," HTC's Chen told CNBC. "But is this the most important thing? Is this the reason why we're doing this blockchain phone? No." Chen rebutted concerns that the exclusivity of the phone's availability to cryptocurrency holders would shut out some of HTC's core audience. "Selling it in crypto only and being the first to do so means we are bringing this directly to the core audience and those who will want this device — the blockchain community," he said. Chen pointed out that HTC is inviting third party cryptographers and developers to give it feedback on phone. HTC — once a powerhouse in the cellphone industry — has seen its status dwindle in recent years, with competitors like Apple and Samsung winning over market share, and Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi climbing in the ranks of the world's largest phone vendors. The 2008 HTC Dream was the first commercially released smartphone to run on Android. With a decline in its own phone sales, and a broader slowdown for the industry, HTC has diversified its business, branching out into virtual reality for instance with the HTC Vive, in partnership with gaming firm Steam. The biggest sign that the company was trimming back its phone business came earlier this year when it struck a $1.1 billion deal with Google to move 2,000 of its employees to the U.S. tech giant — most of whom had worked on Google's flagship Pixel phones — and to give it a non-exclusive license for HTC's intellectual property. It has also recently cut a significant chunk of its global workforce, with its total headcount decreasing to 5,822 from the 7,322 employees it had in March. HTC's Chen told CNBC the focus on blockchain was part of the firm's shifting strategy regarding smartphones, which he said will prioritize software and intellectual property. "We believe blockchain is the new paradigm for smartphones and it will form part of HTC's wider smartphone strategy," Chen told CNBC. "This marks a change in HTC, with increased focus on software and IP." HTC is not alone in developing a blockchain phone though. Start-up Sirin Labs has plans of its own for a $1,000 blockchain-based phone called Finney, which it expects to release before
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