Cher Wang, chairperson, co-founder and CEO of HTC, speaks at a keynote on the second day of the Mobile World Congress 2023.
Joan Cros | Nurphoto | Nurphoto via Getty Images
BARCELONA — The boss of consumer electronics firm HTC thinks Apple goes to launch its own mixed reality headset, but she’s not apprehensive concerning the competition.
Speaking with CNBC on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC CEO and co-founder Cher Wang said the Cupertino tech giant was more likely to launch a mixed reality, or XR, product “very soon” — potentially as soon as this yr. XR refers to technologies that mix the physical and digital worlds.
“I feel the earliest [release date] could also be middle or later this yr,” Wang said.
The corporate will likely prioritize such a tool over augmented reality glasses, she added.
Apple didn’t immediately reply to a CNBC request for comment.
It has reportedly indefinitely paused plans to launch AR glasses by 2025. The corporate has long been rumored to be working by itself virtual and augmented reality experiences. In January, Bloomberg reported that it’s gearing as much as release a mixed reality headset within the spring.
Apple often holds off on entering into a selected product trend or feature until long after other firms. As an illustration, the iPhone didn’t get a camera with two lenses until 2017, years after HTC introduced a dual camera with its HTC One M8 handset in 2014.
“Apple is all the time more cautious. I feel the market is now large enough [that] they probably will enter,” Wang said.
But when Apple does eventually make its way right into a latest product category, it tends to “redefine the way in which that everybody thinks about a chance,” in line with Leo Gebbie, principal analyst for connected devices at CCS Insight.
Neil Shah, research vice chairman of Counterpoint Research, told CNBC: “XR is the most recent type of how we will interact in another way with the world and may change the paradigm of private computing.”
“Apple and the complete industry realizes the potential and hence wish to enter and eventually lead this segment,” he added.
XR competition is fierce
Apple would not be the one company getting in on the XR game. In October, Meta launched its $1,500 Quest Pro device, which lets users interact with virtual objects that appear in a full-color view of the world around them.
Earlier this week, a Samsung executive said that the South Korean electronics giant is “understanding” its mixed reality strategy. Microsoft has its own mixed reality headset, called HoloLens. On Monday, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi took the wraps off of a prototype set of augmented reality glasses.
That may mean more competition for HTC. Within the second quarter of 2022, the corporate shipped over 100,000 XR devices, in line with data from Counterpoint Research, up by 158% from 40,000 shipments in the identical period a yr prior. But its market share stays relatively small.
If anything, Wang thinks that moves from Apple, Meta, Samsung and others within the space will boost the general adoption of mixed reality devices, which she sees as a boon to HTC’s business.
“It’s really proven that our direction is correct,” she said. “Competition is all the time good.”
Once a significant player within the smartphone market, HTC has staked its future on the merging of virtual and physical worlds. In January, the corporate launched its Vive XR Elite device, a light-weight headset focused on gaming, fitness and productivity, at a $1,099 price point.
HTC sold a piece of its smartphone business to Google in 2018 for $1.1 billion.
Betting on the ‘metaverse’
The bet long run is that these devices will likely be how we interact with a mass-scale virtual world often called the “metaverse.” HTC has its own so-called metaverse, named HTC Viverse, and the corporate talked up its ambitions on this area on the show this week.
“The metaverse is sort of growing in a state where so many social media corporations and walled garden corporations are attempting to construct it out themselves,” Shen Ye, HTC’s global head of product, told CNBC. “Our goal is to ensure that it’s as open and interconnected as possible.”
Buzz across the metaverse has died down these days, because the initial hype surrounding Meta’s involvement has been wearing off. Worldwide shipments of VR headsets in addition to augmented reality devices sales sank over 12% last yr, in line with IDC data.
Corporations have as an alternative steered toward artificial intelligence, the brand new in-vogue tech topic that has been catapulted to the highest of industry insiders’ favorite trends by ChatGPT, a popular AI chatbot. At MWC, South Korean telecoms firm SKTelecom had an enormous sign that read “AI METAVERSE.”
Donning one in every of HTC’s XR devices, users can immerse themselves in virtual spaces or interact with 3D objects within the physical space surrounding them.
In a single experience shown off at MWC, people were invited to check out their boxing skills. A grid of nine black circles appears, and also you were scored on how quickly you would punch them as they lit up red one after the opposite in a random order.
Beyond the patron space, HTC sees its technology offering applications in additional industrial and industrial settings. The corporate is working with america Air Force and police departments to perform virtual training experiences, Wang said.
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