The cell phone industry has attracted much attention due to its massive influence on the development of Web3.
Multiple departments in Huawei are exploring Web3, Harmony, Huawei Cloud and Huawei Pay are some of them, according to a person familiar with the matter.
HTC and Samsung are already on the map, and successfully integrated Web3 with their mobile hardware. The former one released a new version of its Web3 phone, which facilitates the management of cryptocurrencies and NFT in June.
Nothing Phone, founded by ex-cofounder of OnePlus, launched a partnership with blockchain giant Polygon in July, with plans to combine Web3 and mobiles, hoping to get a head start by capturing the market.
Web3 refers to a potential new iteration of the Internet running on a public blockchain, with a decentralized feature. Rather than accessing the Internet through intermediary services like Google, Apple, or Facebook, users own and control the various parts of the Internet themselves. Web3 also theoretically better protects users' privacy because no large companies are doing the data collection.
As Web3 has been limited to the web side, 99% of users are on the mobile side, which makes occupying the Web3 mobile side an inevitable choice.
Web3 giant Solana announced that it was officially going to make a Web3 high-end Android smartphone in June 2022. This phone will feature its well-designed software — Solana Mobile Stack (SMS). Solana's goal is to expand its users base, as well as be applicable on Samsung, Google and other Android phones.
For Web3 giants, whether in the basic or the application layer, they have shown the potential to influence the cell phone ecology and even the mobile Internet.
Major players operating in the global Web3 market include Audius, Stepn and CretiK.