HTC has surged in significance in the ten years since it launched the first Android-powered smartphone in 2008. The company remains one of the biggest names in the virtual reality (VR) industry since the HTC Vive came to market. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC), HTC CEO Cher Wang spoke of how 5G will lead to the smartphone becoming a critical part of its future VR strategy.
The changing state of the smartphone market in the past few years, with rivals Samsung dominating the high-end market and companies such as Huawei emerging to grab large shares of the budget and mid-range. Wang suggests that HTC could maintain its position by taking advantage of 5G and its knowledge of VR technology.
It has previously been revealed that Wang is interested expanding the VR technology used in the HTC Vive, the standalone Vive Focus and HTC Vive Pro to areas other than videogames, and her message at MWC suggests that the capabilities of 5G could allow this by making remote processing possible.
“I believe VIVE is the great equalizer,” said Wang. “Today we are creating VIVE Reality: the convergence of VR/AR, 5G and AI. Our lives have become so dependent on the Internet and connectivity that we can barely imagine life without it. Speeds of tens of gigabits of seconds will be transformational. 5G is the perfect matching technology for VR and AI thanks to edge computing and real time transmission. Cloud computing over 5G will enable every single VR and AR device to be the most powerful device in the world. 5G reduces the need for device-based computing power.”
Wang revealed that she was certain that smartphones were still an important part of the future of the company and the future of technology in general: “The smartphone will play an important part of the ecosystem and will be the first step to 5G for most of us,” she said. “In the future, the screen may be de-coupled from the device and projected to VR … or even to our eyes.”
Any future news on HTC’s VR projects will be reported here on VRFocus.