A new, “next generation HTC Vive standalone headset will be released in 2021.
Alvin Wang Graylin, president of Vive in China, revealed in an interview with TeliportMe the same month (as noted by Nathie), two weeks before HTC itself teased a possible new hardware unveiling. Asked if the company will release a competitor to the Oculus Quest this year, Graylin replies: ‘I think we’ve said in the past that we’re going to release a new AIO [all-in-one] this year. I do not think I would post it as a Quest competitor. I think this is our next generation standalone, we will have one this year, it’s going to be a great product. ”
New HTC Vive standalone headphones on the way
Graylin did not want to provide specifications for the new device, but teased that it’s better than current HTC products ‘from every perspective’ and that ‘it’s probably better than what’s available from any retailer today.’ Well, that’s quite a claim.
It’s quite possible that this standalone and the new product that Vive is teasing on Twitter is the same, but it could just as well be something else. To begin with, many of Vive’s recent teasing around last week’s tweet points to something aimed at VR detection. As president of Vive in China, Graylin’s remarks may not necessarily focus on a product that will at least be released worldwide at least once.
Either way, here’s a lot to choose from. First, Graylin calls the standalone the next version of the company, which could mean it’s a direct successor to the Vive Focus. In the West, Focus has been released as a enterprise-class device with no consumer option, which would explain why this new standalone might not be a Quest competitor, even if the specifications indeed surpass Facebook’s headset. If it’s a business device, it’s likely that the kit will be too expensive to compete with the $ 299 Quest 2 anyway. Focus was also released in China months before it arrived in the rest of the world.
We’ll have to wait until HTC is ready to reveal everything on this front. Until then, what do you want to see from a new standalone HTC Vive headset? Let us know in the comments below!