At the end of May we reported that a TikTok phone could be in the works, based on a Financial Times report. Now its parent company, ByteDance, has confirmed it will indeed be making a phone, according to Reuters.

Perhaps that's no surprise. ByteDance has recently acquired some tech patents of Smartisan - a nearly four-year-old Chinese phone maker - and this is simply the company putting its ducks in a row.

Whether that device will be a 'TikTok Phone' developed by Smartisan, specifically, isn't 100 per cent confirmed. But that would make sense as a platform for the music and video editing app as a platform.

In late May we further reported that TikTok might be launching a paid music streaming service in the near future, as sourced from a Bloomberg report. That as a free sign-up with such a device purchase would be a no-brainer as a sales point.

However, while TikTok is a successful app and company, it's not a universally known name in the market. And we've seen others stumble before: Facebook's integration in the HTC Cha Cha and Amazon launching its own (and entirely doomed) Fire Phone series.

Think of the TikTok Phone as a China-only release, however, and the combination of hardware and integrated software could make it a significant lure - as we doubt it will rely heavily on the Smartisan name.