standalone Bluetooth speakers with established
brand Harman Kardon. HTC has made a huge
statement of intent with these product
launches, setting out to diversify beyond just
phones. However, they are also setting
themselves up for a battle against some big
name rivals.
When most people think about virtual reality, their
minds will probably turn to either Oculus Rift or
Sony’s Project Morpheus. While both have yet to
launch anything beyond developer kits, they can still
be considered market leaders and HTC has made a
bold move challenging their authority. However, they
could not have picked a better partner than Valve,
as just the announcement of their partnership drew
a ripple of applause from the audience at the launch
event. The raft of games at Valve’s disposal should
provide Vive users with endless entertainment. The
controllers are an interesting addition, enabling
users to immerse themselves more deeply into the
virtual reality world.
“Our collaboration with HTC is driven by the
companies’ shared desire to produce the most
compelling and complete VR experience” said Ken
Birdwell of Valve.
Another string to Vive’s bow will be HTC’s
collaboration with major companies such as HBO,
Lionsgate and the National Palace Museum in
Taiwan. Content from these suppliers will be part of
the full Vive experience, which will provide movies,
TV and cultural experiences, as well as the games
that we mentioned before.
HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang said that she hoped
the Vive will be the VR headset “that completely
redefi nes how we entertain ourselves,
communicate with each other, learn and, eventually,
how we become more productive. HTC Vive is real,
it’s here and it’ll be ready to go before the start of
2016”, which is more than promising.
The Grip fi tness tracker, meanwhile, will be taking
th ight f Nik ’ F lb d ll th lik
their own fitness trackers already. Again, HTC has
aligned itself well with Under Armour who are well
known and respected in the USA and have an
established social network for athletes and fi tness
enthusiasts called UA Record.
HTC’ D Bamford said, “Our partnership with
as enabled us to direct ourcombined ambition, talent and passion towards
developing new ways to empower athletes to make
the most of their training every day.”
With serious support from Valve and Under
Armour, it will be interesting to see if HTC can enter
these competitive markets and establish itself as
more than a smartphone manufacturer.The Grip fi tness tracker will be taking on Nike, TomTom and Samsung in the competitive fi tness tracker marketve’s
ts
s 90fps
would provide a much smoother user experience than the 60fps offered by
Samsung. The Gear has an optional controller while the Vive will have two, so
gaming-wise it seems like Vive may have trumped its more experienced rival.There is a
already offering the Gear and VR apps through an app store means that the
Gear has had a huge head start in selling, marketing and fi xing bugs. One
thing to note, however, is that you need to use a Galaxy S6, S6 Edge or Note 4
to get the Gear VR up and running, while HTC haven’t yet revealed how their
screens will create the all-important optical illusion.CVi
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