HTC Didn’t Just Die… It was Murdered

Jkjk, shout out to Cleanprincegaming… 😂😉

I certainly agree that HTC has a terrible marketing strategy. And you’re likely right that they simply don’t care enough about customer growth or innovation to continue their various breakthroughs.

I don’t know much about their phones, but their VR products suffer the same way.

The HTC Vive is most definitely the best VR headset currently on the market.

They have the best 360° tracking, library of games, developer support, and even comfort over a longer sessions (albeits still not great).

Pretty much the only thing Oculus has on it is the controllers (which is not necessarily a clear winner), and the price point. But most say its worth the price, especially with the deluxe audio straps.

But Not for Long

Oculus is working hard to win in the standalone headset space, and they’ve already introduced their next generation of headsets.. The amazing half dome, that will (hopefully) solve the resolution, focus, and field of view problems all in one fell swoop.

Meanwhile, Vive is working on…

The same knuckles controllers they debuted 2 years ago… and I guess a standalone headset that they don’t care enough about to talk about anywhere.

Windows is working hard in their own way too, with its open source hardware being used in just about every new PC manufacturer creating their own headset on its platform.

Meanwhile, Vive and Valve are sitting on the largest gaming platform in existence…

And still failing to market the best content as well as attract more high budget developers.

Vive came out with the Pro and all but drowned in their own incompetence. Not only was it only marginally better (granted the resolution makes reading actually possible in VR), but they apparently made 2.0 versions of the controllers and lighthouses without effectively explaining what they changed on the new versions!

So they sold the Pro at 800 (while the original is 500 now), just with the headset itself… and then about two weeks later announced the 2.0 peripherals selling the whole set at 1300!! Over twice the current set with nominal improvements.

For all we know, the extra 2 feet of space it supports, higher resolution, and native wireless ability is all they added.

It turns out the Vive Pro can actually do augmented reality…but of course the form factor makes it impractical in most AR usecases.

As an arcade operator, I’m pretty sure they’re trying to appeal to Location Based Entertainment spots like Virtual Reality Arcades and ilk.. As well as corporate teams that want to be all ‘sexy' and use VR for training.

But they’re completely failing to realize that most of us can’t afford to buy even more expensive hardware, especially when we know most customers won’t really tell the difference or have a Vive at home anyways. Not worth the margin cost.

Not only do they seem to not understand their target market… but they also seem incapable of actually getting people excited, or even informed, about what improvements they added.

They don’t even try to justify the cost

Despite all these missteps. The HTC Vive is still the most well recognized and lauded VR headsets on the market.

I just hope they care enough about their legacy and technology to foster this community… to not just innovate, but take pride and lead the next few generations of virtual reality.