Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) is looking to work with German luxury automaker Audi AG to provide a service to potential auto buyers, allowing them to test drive vehicles with the aid of HTC’s Vive virtual-reality (VR) headset.
The company is also promoting its VR headset in China by partnering with Hangzhou Shunwang Technology Co (杭州順網科技), which develops and sells Internet entertainment networking platforms, HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a conference in Beijing for VR technology developers, Wang said HTC is exploring opportunities to expand its VR headset’s application to areas such as entertainment, medical care, education, exhibitions, property development, industrial design, tourism and e-commerce.
With VR technology poised to grow over the next 10 years, the Vive headset is expected to be one of the company major products with a huge market potential, Wang said.
HTC has invested more than NT$300 million (US$9.06 million) in WEVR, a VR content developer in the US. The Taiwanese firm is also building a VR platform to allow developers to provide content that consumers can download when Vive hits store shelves in April, Wang said.
Preorder sales for the headset, jointly developed by HTC and US video game supplier Valve Corp, is expected to begin at the end of February, HTC said.
The developers’ forum, called HTC Vive Unbound, took place in Beijing yesterday. Among the participants was Glen Keane, one of Disney’s foremost character animators, who demonstrated the use of Vive in the field of animation.
The forum is part of HTC’s world demo tour to market its new VR headset, which is equipped with tracked controllers that allow wearers to inspect objects from every angle and interact with their surroundings.
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