HTC aims to further popularize VR

HTC Corp will step up popularizing the use of virtual reality technology in both the consumer market and the enterprise market as part of its broader push to promote digital transformation, a senior executive said.

Charles Huang, corporate vice-president of HTC, said there is surging demand for VR devices in a wide range of segments, such as remote conferencing, training, education, healthcare, design and exhibition.

Huang shared this in an interview with China Daily at the sidelines of the ongoing sixth China International Import Expo in Shanghai. At the expo, the company showcased its latest technologies, such as a virtual production solution, which can effectively reduce the time and cost to do a video production.

"The solution is being used in some Hollywood studios and some news and TV stations throughout the world," Huang said.

According to him, HTC is banking on the business-to-business, or B2B, segment and attaching great importance to the cooperation with industry partners to develop new applications.

"CIIE is a very good platform for global communication and exchanges. We have accumulated many cases of commercial use of technologies such as VR. We are showcasing them at the expo," Huang said.

According to him, HTC is working hard to strengthen technological exchanges and information sharing in the metaverse and striving to build an interconnected, mutually beneficial and compatible metaverse ecosystem.

Sales of AR and VR products on the Chinese mainland surged 62 percent year-on-year to total 220,000 units in the first quarter of this year, according to a report by research and consulting company CINNO Research.

Sales of consumer-grade AR products in the first three months of this year was 17 times that of the same period last year, boosted by the growing popularity of AR glasses that can display projections from other screens, said the report.

The debut of Apple Inc's first mixed-reality headset Vision Pro in June is expected to spice up competition in the AR and VR market in 2023, the report revealed.

Huang from HTC said it's very glad that Apple came into this industry as it proves that the company's decision to enter into this industry was the right one because "we have been in this industry since 2015, so it's almost been 10 years."

"We are expecting a lot of developers in different segments. They will come in to produce more content and applications and that will help the whole industry. We want to cultivate the overall ecosystem," Huang said.