It was reported a couple of weeks back that Asus could make its own augmented reality headset, one that might take some inspiration from the Microsoft HoloLens. Today during an earnings webcast Asus CEO Jerry Shen confirmed that the company is indeed working on such a device and also provided a timeframe in which we can expect the augmented reality headset to arrive.
Asus didn’t go into much detail about this product and hasn’t even confirmed as yet whether the headset would just be the company’s take on HoloLens or if it’s going to build one from scratch that doesn’t really take any aid from Microsoft.
CEO Jerry Shen said during the webcast that the company believes augmented reality will be very important for people’s lives, while he didn’t say much about the product itself, Shen did mention that it should come out next year.
Augmented reality tech still has a long way to go but progress is being made gradually. Microsoft does intend to release a consumer version of HoloLens at some point but initially it will only be releasing a developer version of the headset early next year which will be priced at $3,000, certainly not what you would expect an average customer to spend on an AR device.
It remains to be seen though if Asus takes its augmented reality headset straight to market or whether it too sticks with developers first to make sure that all of the kinks have been worked out before the headset is released to the public. We’ll only find out for sure next year.
Filed in . Read more about Asus, Augmented Reality (AR), Hololens and Microsoft.