After many a delay, the Vive virtual reality headset from Taiwanese tech company HTC, is set to see a commercial rollout in April of next year, according to the latest post on the official HTC blog. The company has also mentioned that prior to the device’s commercial launch, as many as 7,000 developer kits will be made available in the first quarter of next year. Of course, the company was originally looking to launch the device commercially in the fourth quarter of this year, but that date was initially pushed back to the first quarter of next year. As it turns out now, even that was a goal too far for HTC, even as companies like Samsung started rolling out its Gear VR headsets as early as last year.
For the uninitiated, the HTC Vive is a head-mounted virtual reality display which is currently under development. It is a collaboration between Taiwanese technology company HTC and the world’s largest digital video game distribution company, Valve Corporation. The device will compete in the marketplace with other, similar offerings from companies like Sony with its PlayStation VR, (originally codenamed Project Morpheus), Oculus VR, with its upcoming Oculus Rift and of course, Samsung, whose Gear VR headsets which are already available for purchase. As for HTC’s upcoming contender in the segment, now that the company has officially set April, 2016 as the launch date, VR fans worldwide will be hoping that the company will finally be able to go through with the launch within the mentioned timeframe.
Coming to HTC’s announcement, the company says that it will “remain committed to delivering the HTC Vive to a broader group of content creators and partners, and remain focused on delivering the very best experience possible for a consumer release”. The company also says that it will host a developer conference in Beijing on December 18th and launch the second generation of the HTC Vive Developer Kit at the CES 2016 trade show to be held at Las Vegas, Nevada. It remains to be seen whether the company can deliver on its promise this time around, but with losses mounting up by the day, the company’s management, employees and well-wishers will be hoping that HTC will be able to turn the corner with the launch of the Vive headset.