Company behind viral video app TikTok unveils its first ever smartphone called the ‘Nut Pro 3’ with FOUR sensor camera and $400 price tag
- ByteDance, owners of Tik Tok, released their first ever smartphone
- The device has been in development for almost a year and is called the Nut Pro 3
- It comes pre-loaded with apps like Douyin, China’s version of TikTok
- It will go on sale in China for a little more than $400
Parent company of Chinese social media upstart TikTok has released their first ever smart phone.
The device, called the Nut Pro 3, was developed in tandem with smart phone makers, Smartisan, and retains the same name as Smartisan’s current line of devices.
As anticipated, the Nut Pro 3 will come pre-loaded with multiple apps owned by Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok.
TikTok owners, ByteDance, have officially entered the smart phone business with the relase of their first ever phone, the Nut Pro 3
The Nut Pro 3 is being made by Chinese smart phone maker Smartisan and will retain the name of previous versions of the device
Those include the app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, which users will be able to launch by simply swiping the screen up according to Engadget. It’s unclear which others have made the cut, however.
The device is now available for users in China and retailing at $412, or 2899 yuan.
The phone will have a rear facing camera array that boasts four total sensors, and will come with 12GB of RAM, in addition to two storage sizes – a 128 GB and a 256 GB version.
One of the biggest questions will be which operating system the phone will use, as previous version of the Nut Pro used the Google-owned Android – a partnership that has been imperiled by ongoing trade tensions between the US and China.
India may be a potential market for the device since TikTok has amassed a sizable user base there which now totals more than 300 million monthly users.
The phone is unlikely to be released in the US or Europe as skepticism over Chinese tech companies – TikTok and Huawei in particular – continue to loom larger.
The release of the Nut Pro 3 comes after ByteDance struck a deal with the Smartisan earlier this year for certain patents that they claimed would help the company ‘explore the world of education.’
In reality, however, the move strategically positioned the company to expand toward phones.
The parent company of viral video app TikTok confirmed their plans to release its own smartphone earlier this year. File photo
TikTok has also had real impacts on cultural trends in the years since its launch. For example, ‘Old Town Road,’ currently the number one song in the world, picked up steam on TikTok
TikTok, also known as Douyin in China, has become one of the fastest-growing apps among teen users over the past few years and now counts more than 500 million downloads.
The app has also had real impacts on cultural trends. For example, ‘Old Town Road,’ currently the number one song in the world, picked up steam on TikTok.
With its streaming service, ByteDance will try to capitalize on TikTok’s rapid popularity by converting some of its users into paying customers, according to an earlier report from Bloomberg earlier this month.
Offering the app as a paid service is likely to be more appealing to labels, as they’ll get a higher rate of royalties compared to free services.
WHAT IS TIKTOK?
TikTok is known in China as Douyin where it was launched in 2016
Tik Tok is a Chinese social media app where users can live stream, create short videos and music videos and Gifs with a host of functions.
Tik Tok’s tagline is ‘Make every second count’.
It was the most downloaded app in the US in 2018 and the world’s fourth most downloaded app in 2018, ahead of Instagram and Snapchat.
TikTok is known in China as Douyin where it was launched in 2016 and then made more widely available around the world in 2017.
Douyin is still the version of the app used in China, available to download separately to TikTok.
Last year, the app was merged with popular music video lip-syncing app Musical.ly, also with headquarters in China.
Most children use the app to film themselves lip-syncing to chart hits.
It offers users a raft if colourful modification and editing tools including overlaying music, sound, animated stickers, filters and augmented reality (AR) for creating short videos.
The Beijing based social network has more than 500 million active users and the company is now worth more than $75 billion (£58 billion).
