It goes without saying that HTC needs all the help it can get to sell its products so as to survive in the market. The company hasn’t been performing spectacularly which is why it’s trying to come up with new ways to improve its performance. It sees virtual reality has an opportunity to regain its lost position in the market and just might be willing to jump in the mobile VR race as well.
HTC decided against unveiling its new flagship smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2016 this year. It’s likely to conduct an event next month to unveil the HTC One M10. At MWC 2016 it only announced a few mid-range handsets.
HTC already has a high-end virtual reality headset called the Vive which was first shown off last year. It confirmed pricing and availability for the HTC Vive VR headset a few days back. The headset costs $800 and requires a PC powerful enough to support it so it’s certainly not for everyone.
On the other hand, Samsung has made considerable progress in the mobile VR market with the Gear VR. The $99 headset is affordable enough and works with a compatible Samsung device. HTC doesn’t rule out the possibility of making a similar device that works with its flagship handsets.
Without confirming any specific plans Drew Bamford, the corporate VP of HTC’s Creative Labs, said “it would make sense for us to work on more kinds of VR products, and products that unite our phone business and our VR business in ways that make sense.”
So the possibility exists that we might see HTC come out with a mobile VR headset at some point down the road, we just don’t know when.
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