At a special event today in San Francisco, HTC announced that Vive Focus, the company’s standalone 6DOF headset, is launching for enterprise customers starting today in 37 markets, including North America and Europe.
Vive Focus previously launched in China back in January as a consumer device. Now the company is launching the standalone headset internationally as an enterprise-focused device.
Two specific offerings are on the table; Vive Focus and Vive Focus “Advantage”, the latter of which comes along with a professional services program providing commercial licensing, dedicated support, and service utilities for hardware support. There will also be an “Advantage+” program which presumably offers a more lengthy hardware warranty.
The standard device without additional services is priced at $600, while the Vive Focus Advantage starts at $750. Despite the focus on enterprise, regular consumers won’t be turned away, as it appears the enterprise emphasis is just that at the lower end of the pricing spectrum. It’s stated that it’s for enterprise, but anyone can buy it direct from HTC’s enterprise-facing site.
The Vive Focus is a standalone headset which means it has everything needed for a VR experience built directly into the device—including the battery, processor, graphics, and display—rather than relying on a docked smartphone. Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chip, the headset boasts a 1,600 × 1,440 OLED display for each lens, 6DOF headset tracking, IPD adjustment, and a single 3DOF controller.
HTC North Americas General Manager Dan O’Brien reinforced that Vive Focus 6DOF controllers are coming, although there’s still no ETA on when these will be available to anyone besides developers at this time.
Vive Focus is launching internationally running Vive Wave SDK, the company’s mobile platform developed specifically over the Vive Focus’ tenure in China. Content will be sourced from the mobile version of Viveport.
Vive Wave SDK is an open platform that offers interoperability between several classes of mobile VR headsets and accessories, something the company calls a “clear step forward in bringing together the highly fragmented mobile VR market.”
Here’s the specs list in case you haven’t heard:
| Tracking technology&sensors: | World-Scale tracking(inside-out 6-degree-of-freedom),9-axis sensors, proximity sensor |
|---|---|
| Display: | 3K AMOLED, resolution 2880 x 1600 |
| Refresh rate: | 75 Hz |
| FOV: | 110 degrees |
| Adjustable IPD: | Supported |
| Processor: | Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 835 |
| Storage: | MicroSD™ slot,up to 2TB MicroSD™ external memory |
| For data and device charging: | USB Type-C |
| Audio input/output: | Built-in microphones, built-in speakers, 3.5mm stereo audio jack |
| Wireless: | Wi-Fi® 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, support to transmit contents to Miracast™ compatible devices |
| Power and battery: | Built-in rechargeable battery, QC3.0 fast charging, up to 3 hours* of active use time, over one week* standby time |