Twitter’s petulant new CEO thinks building its own phone might just be a good idea
We’re about a month intoElon Musk’s ownership of Twitterand while we try not to cover every littlespillandthrillhappening at the company, our ears did perk up when we heard that the billionaire would consider making a phone just for the app. But, as with everything about the acquisition process for this troubled entity, the devil lies in the details.
On Friday, conservative media personality Liz Wheeler posted a tweet regarding speculation that Apple and Google would remove Twitter from their respective app stores by egging Musk onto making a smartphone, saying that “half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android.” Spending as much time as he does on the site, it didn’t take long for him to respond:
As Musk ponders his options, we should note that at least one right-wing ideologue has tried to carry this out. In 2021, Bitcoin investor Eric Finman spearheaded the Freedom Phone (viaScreenRant), an Android phone with all signs of Google removed from it, pre-loaded with apps likeParler, which has gone through its own ban from the app stores before being reinstated on them, and Newsmax, plus a custom-curated app store. Much ado was made about the fact that the low-end hardware came from a Chinese manufacturer and that deliveries were constantly being delayed.
In theory, Musk could just sell an Android phone with a heavily-modified UI layer centered around Twitter and claim “mission accomplished,” but that would be a tall order for the “hardcore,” but diminished workforce he’s retained. Maybe, to make things simpler, they can pull anHTC Firstand get an ODM to build a device with a button dedicated to Twitter runningSailfish OS.
A Twitter phone isn’t that silly of a notion. The fantastical-sounding part here is the thought that it’ll take Android and iPhone users by storm.
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