HTC Vive[Courtesy of HTC]
HTC’s “Vive”, a virtual reality headset, sales are skyrocketing since its pre-orders began on Monday. Although the headset was criticized for being too pricey, at US$ 800, during the first ten minutes of its pre-sales, the company sold 15,000 sets.
HTC’s VR product specialist Shen Ye Twitted “Woah, more than 15k units in less than 10min :o”. The Vive headset package will include a pair of controllers and consumers who pre-ordered the headsets will be able to receive their much-anticipated package in May.
Vive is the second-in-row VR device to be shipped this year, Facebook-owned Oculus VR’s “Oculus Rift” is scheduled for shipping on March 28. The Oculus is priced at $600.
The price of VR systems are still in controversy as the headsets themselves are very pricey, and the VR companies recommend the users that a powerful PC is needed to fully enjoy the VR environment provided by the VR devices.
Many experts have estimated how much a computer would cost if it’s built from scratch to fully run the VR systems. Many have estimated at least $800, and Solid State Drive (SSD) was not included in the cheapest recommended PC system.
Apart from HTC’s Vive and Oculus Rift, more VR devices are to be released this year. Sony PlayStation VR is one of them. The release date is not yet cleared, but experts see that Sony’s VR system is very likely to be released in the second half of this year. Samsung had already released the second version of Gear VR earlier this year, and there’s possibility that the company may release more versions of VR devices.
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
