5 reasons why we need a web3 based phone?

Web3 phone wars appear to be starting up. But, does a blockchain really need its own hardware and app store?

Let's look at the viability of this new market.

1. A crypto first phone should increase adoption worldwide.

Emergent markets are populated mostly by cellphone users. An estimated 2 billion people have access to the web via cell phones and it accounts for about 60% of the "device" market share and it appears to be gaining. What's more important is that cell phones get more usage than traditional desktops/laptops due to their convenience. A vast majority of searches and social media interaction occurs on cellphones. They World Advertising Research Center forecasts around 72% of internet use and 3.7 billion people will be accessing the internet via smartphones by 2025.

1. An app store alternative or Dapp store could be appealing to developers.

Google and Apple take a 30% cut of most app store transactions. Developers have to eat this cost because it is the only method to get their app exposed to a large user base. Not saying the ETH Dapp store is going to overtake the Google Play Store anytime soon, but I imagine plenty of developers could deploy a Dapp version of their normal app in hopes of getting a better return.

1. eCommerce Payments

Average credit cards will charge a 1.3%-3.5% processing fee for each transaction. A charge that is inevitably priced into the goods we fine consumers purchase. If I'm an eCommerce APP, why wouldn't I allow an alternative payment method such as Solana Pay or NOWPayments to be available to users? Could save consumers tons.

1. Privacy

Let's be honest, google knows way too much about me and my everyday life. Instead of signing into apps with an email, phone number, password, and credit card attached to your profile. Your wallet address is all of these things rolled into one without the name attached. It will be a truly pseudonymous experience.

1. Options

It will likely still be a good/normal phone experience with the addition of Web3 native support. Web3 isn't trying to replace the current Android and IOS. Google play and Apple store will still be on the phone and supported. Ive even read of a toggle mode to switch between crypto incognito and normal mode. Cryptonito?

Who are the players?

So far as I can tell there have been 3 phones announced with crypto integration.

Nothing Phone's draw is Polygon based microtransactions. Nothing phone includes tech that simplifies access to dApps (on the polygon network I assume). It has a pretty slick clear cover so you can see the innards and will run Nothing OS in addition to android 12. The phone is already out as we speak.

Solana Sage will be a higher end Android Phone priced @ $1000.00. They announced the phone will have a seed vault with built in private keys like a ledger, but a phone. Interaction with dApps, Solana Pay, and the Solana dApp store will be handled by the seed vault and they say it should feel like web2 but with the security and privacy of Web3.

HTC Desire 22 Pro is all about "Metaverse Compatibility" with HTCs very own Viveverse. Thats pretty underwhelming, but I'm sure they will support whatever metaverse Facebook cooks up down the line. They didn't specify what ecosystem they would initially launch on.

Closing remarks

I dont think Web3 phones are replacing our current phone culture anytime soon. However, it is exciting to think of the possible adoption this is likely to create. I dont think crypto companies want to spend a ton of time launching hardware. My bet is that Solana and others hope Apple, Samsung and Google see the possibilities and integrate the tech into their future smartphone models.

Will you be trying out any of these?