“The owner of a smartphone automatically takes part in the lottery” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levi talks about the second generation of a luxury smartphone, the software of which uses Web3 and blockchain technologies.

The Vertu brand has opened a pre-order for the Metavertu model. So far, nothing is known about the characteristics of the second generation luxury smartphone. The only available data predictably concerns support for blockchain and Web3 technologies, like its predecessor.

The presentation of the novelty should take place only on October 2. Why did the vendor decide on such a sequence of actions? It looks like it’s purely marketing. Along with the pre-order, the potential owner of the smartphone automatically takes part in a lottery with a prize fund of 1 bitcoin, 2 units of ethereum and five certain mysterious boxes. The value of the latter is not described in any way.

Considering that the pre-order required to participate in the drawing will last until the end of October, the motivation of Metavertu 2 buyers before its official presentation is not very transparent. In this case, they are not promised any additional preferences.

Moreover, it is the details of the implementation and application of Web3 and blockchain technologies in new software that will be of interest in the first place. The recent pre-sale of smartphones running the Ethereum-based ethOS operating system was successful. The devices have a number of built-in tools for working with payments, receiving and sending messages. The first batch of 50 adapted Google Pixel models sold out in a day.

It is important to understand the following relation. The new product based on Ethereum could be purchased only for NFTs, the cost of which reached approximately $5 thousand, which is 10 times more expensive than the regular Google Pixel 7a.

Taking this into account, it is interesting to know in what price range the Metavertu 2 will fall. In terms of hardware, it is unlikely to surprise. Vertu models of recent years are almost a copy of powerful Chinese smartphones, the origin of which is easy to figure out. Build quality and materials will be of the usual high level. For the current version of the first generation Metavertu, the manufacturer is asking from $3.35 thousand to $41.5 thousand.