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 The Taiwanese electronics company HTC set up a booth at the four day
exhibition, showcasing how the consumer edition will operate when it
goes on sale in April. The Vive was developed by HTC and US video
game developer Valve Corporation's software distribution platform
Steam.
Similar in appearance to the Vive Pre, shown off at 2015's Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) in Nevada, the Vive contains a number of
updated features.
The package includes two hand-tracking controllers and two
Lighthouse laser tracking boxes, which measure the headset's
position as users walk around.
Antonio Munoz, global account director at HTC, told Reuters: "Today
at MWC we are presenting as well some of the new features and
functionality that comes with the new HMD (head-mounted display),
which include a front-facing camera that will allow you to introduce
some new safety features, like blending the real and the virtual
world and we are also introducing some functionality that combines
with the mobile phone use so that you're able to see the
notifications and calls that you are getting on your mobile phone."
As well as a gaming and video platform, the Vive is also designed to
allow users to answer phone calls, read text messages, and view the
user's phone calendar.
According to Munoz, "our HMD, our headset, is connected to the PC
and we run the games through the PC platforms. We, of course, are
partnering with Steam who provide a huge customer base for gaming.
They are the leaders in that space."
The HTC Vive is available via pre-order, at a cost of $799 USD per
unit. Munoz defended the apparently high price tag, saying it was
"worth every dollar".
"There's a lot of technology going on in that kit," said Munoz. "As
part of the default sales kit we provide two base stations that will
fully track the user within the room. We provide two fully tracked
controllers and then also the HMD that includes a camera, a
microphone, super high quality lenses, and also a very high
resolution display. So there's actually a lot of technology coming
in that kit and we feel actually what we are providing the user is
definitely worth every dollar."
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The HTC will be going head-to-head - or headset-to-headset - with
the likes of Oculus Rift, Samsung, Sony, and Microsoft in a bid to
become market leader in the growing VR sector. Market analysts CCS
Insight believe that 13 million VR headsets will have been sold by
the end of this year, a figure projected to rise to 97 million by
2020.
Rob Kerr, technology and mobiles expert for UK-based price
comparison service uSwitch, says suggestions that VR is a fuss about
nothing are wide of the mark.
"VR could be seen by some as gimmicky unless you try it and when you
try it you know that there's something there," he told Reuters. "You
know that it's bringing something special into people's lives,
traveling distances you would never do yourself."
Alido Di Diovanni, President of Summit, Canadian software solutions
providers, believes VR's future is very bright. "You can have 360
(degree) video streams all round the world, operators can send
feeds, for instance, from sporting events, from museums,
restaurants, and so forth," he said. "Users could connect to those
VR streams and as they connect to them they can engage users within
that space, and they can engage users who maybe don't have to have
off-the-shelf phones. So a user may have got a phone from an
operator that supports standard based video calling. You'd see a
user net VR space and you'd be able to click on them and actually
initiate a video call with that user overlaid on a 360 stream."
The MWC ends on February 25.
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