You’ll be able to pre-order HTC’s virtual reality headset next month.
HTC CEO Cher Wang told The Telegraph that her company will take pre-orders for the Vive starting on Feb. 29.
This news comes after Facebook-owned Oculus opened pre-orders for its Rift headset last week and announced a price point of $599.
HTC, which has its U.S. offices in Bellevue, Wash., has yet to unveil a price for the Vive. The device is being co-developed with Bellevue-based gaming company Valve.
The initial orders for the Vive will start shipping in April — originally, HTC planned to start selling its headset at the end of last year, but delayed shipments in order to add improvements.
At CES last week in Las Vegas, GeekWire had a chance to test out the newest developer edition of the headset with a few of those improvements. We came away impressed, particularly with a new front-facing camera that lets users gauge the physical space around them while wearing the headset.
Wang also told The Telegraph that HTC — an early smartphone pioneer — is shifting its focus away from the smartphone business as it struggles to keep up with Apple, Xiaomi, and others. Instead, it is betting big on virtual reality, where it will compete with others like Oculus, Sony, and Samsung.
