Cher Wang – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

October 23, 2020

HTC’s Cher Wang Given ‘Accenture VR Lifetime Achievement Award’ by AIXR

The annual VR Awards created by The Academy of International Extended Reality (AIXR) holds its event every November, highlighting the best companies, products and those working in the XR industry. One of its main awards is the ‘Accenture VR Lifetime Achievement Award’ which HTC founder and CEO Cher Wang has been given this year.

HTC has been involved with the virtual reality (VR) industry for many years, initially with a firm focus towards consumers with the HTC Vive. Whilst still involved with the consumer sector via the Vive Cosmos, over the years the company has shifted more towards enterprise use cases, from hardware such as Vive Focus Plus and Vive Pro Eye to fostering new startups through its Vive X accelerator.

“I am honoured to receive this award, and dedicate it to all of our teams and partners who dared to dream and are working hard to make the vision happen,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC Corp in a statement. “It’s an exciting time to be in the industry. We’re still in the Age of Exploration for VR, discovering new use cases every day, and it’s been fantastic to see so many people, companies, schools, museums, and more recognise the potential for VR, and utilise it for collaboration, training, education, healthcare, art and culture, and even global sustainability. VR truly holds the key to a better world.”

Recently, HTC Vive launched the Vive XR Suite, designed to help businesses collaborate virtually, comprised of Vive Sync, Vive Sessions, Vive Campus, Vive Social, and Vive Museum; all with their own unique features. Whilst its distribution platform Viveport has been an important part of recent festivals such as Venice VR Expanded and LFF Expanded.

“We’re incredibly proud to name Cher as our ‘Accenture VR Lifetime Achievement’ award winner and hope that by showcasing her work, we can inspire the next generation of pioneers to do more, to break new barriers and continue to develop digital technology,” Daniel Colaianni, AIXR Chief Executive commented. “As always, we’re thankful to our partners at Accenture for their support which enables us to recognise achievement and nurture a flourishing industry as it continues to grow.”

This is the second year for the award which was previously by John Carmack. All the other award winners will be announced during the main event on 12th November 2020, held virtually for the first time inside VRChat. For further updates including the winners, keep reading VRFocus.

September 7, 2020

HTC CEO Yves Maitre Steps Down After Less Than One Year

With less than one year at the company’s helm, HTC announced that Yves Maitre is stepping down as the company’s President and CEO.

Maitre took over as CEO just shy one year ago in late September 2019. According to Engadget, the French former executive is stepping down due to “personal reasons.”

Cher Wang, who took over as CEO in March 2015 and then later stepped down to make way for Maitre, is said to return to the position of CEO from her previous position as Chairwoman of the board.

HTC CEO Yves Maitre Resigns After Less Than A Year

HTC CEO Yves Maitre has resigned, citing personal reasons, in just less than a year since he took over the role.

Maitre assumed the position of CEO in late September 2019, around a month before HTC launched its latest consumer-focused PC VR headset, the Vive Cosmos. Maitre moved to HTC from French phone company Orange, and at the time HTC emphasized “5G and XR” as areas of potential growth.

In an interview with Bloomberg shortly after the launch of the Cosmos, Maitre said that he wasn’t sure that “the target is to beat Oculus.” The comments preceded a year where HTC has increasingly pivoted toward the enterprise market and shifted focus away from consumers.

Now, just shy of a year since Maitre became CEO, he has resigned from the position for personal reasons. Here’s a statement on the resignation issued by HTC:

HTC Corp., the global leader in smartphone and virtual reality innovation, today announced that the strict international travel restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted the lives of millions as well as business globally, have had an impact on its CEO, Yves Maitre, in reconciling work and family. Today, the Board of Directors accepted Yves’ resignation for personal reasons. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors. The Company’s chairwoman, Cher Wang, has assumed the CEO position.

Cher Wang has been in the CEO before — she took over as CEO in 2015 from Peter Chou and stayed in the role until last year. Yves Maitre took over from Wang in September of last year.

September 17, 2019

New HTC CEO Vows Continued Focus on Vive and XR

HTC has announced the appointment of Yves Maitre as its new CEO. Maitre, a former exec at French telecom Orange, says he will continue to grow the future of both 5G and XR as the company’s leader.

Cher Wang, who took over as company CEO in March 2015, is stepping down to continue as Chairwoman of the HTC board. HTC says she will focus on future technologies that both align with the company’s portfolio and vision of Vive Reality.

At Orange, Yves served as EVP of consumer equipment and partnerships, overseeing Orange’s connected technology strategy and business.

“Across the world, HTC is recognized for its firsts across the mobile and XR space. I am incredibly energized to grow the future of both 5G and XR alongside HTC employees, customers and investors,” said Maitre. “We will set out immediately to continue the transition from building the worlds’ best consumer hardware to also building complete services around them to make them easy to manage and deploy.”

HTC Appoints new CEO as Cher Wang Steps Down Ahead of Vive Cosmos Launch

October will be an important month for HTC’s fortunes with the impending release of its latest consumer virtual reality (VR) headset, Vive Cosmos. Today, the company has announced that CEO and Chairwoman Cher Wang would be stepping down as CEO, replaced by Yves Maitre.

Yves Maitre, CEO, HTC

Previously serving as EVP of Consumer Equipment and Partnerships for telecommunications firm Orange, Maitre has a long history in consumer electronics having also served as a member of Orange’s innovation technology group.

Wang will retain her role as Chairwoman of the HTC board, continuing her focus on future technology like the Vive brand.

“When I took over as CEO four years ago, I set out to reinvent HTC as a complete ecosystem company and lay the foundations for the company to flourish across 5G and XR. So, now is the perfect time to hand over the stewardship of HTC to a strong leader to guide us on the next stage of our journey,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HTC in a statement. “I am truly delighted that Yves is taking the reins; he has a long association with our company, and he shares our passion for innovation. I firmly believe Yves is the right leader to continue to lead HTC to its full potential.”

Vive Cosmos

“HTC has long been a bellwether for new technology innovation and I’m honoured to be selected by the Board of Directors to lead the next phase of HTC,” said Yves Maitre, CEO at HTC. “Across the world, HTC is recognized for its firsts across the mobile and XR space. I am incredibly energized to grow the future of both 5G and XR alongside HTC employees, customers and investors. We will set out immediately to continue the transition from building the worlds’ best consumer hardware to also building complete services around them to make them easy to manage and deploy.”

As a whole HTC hasn’t been doing particularly great of late, experiencing substantial losses between January and March 2019. With the original HTC Vive now over three years old and devices like HTC Vive Pro aimed more towards the enterprise market, the arrival of Vive Cosmos next month is a crucial one. The company is heavily investing in future technologies and partnerships, as these progress VRFocus will keep you updated.

September 17, 2019

HTC CEO Cher Wang Steps Down As Vive Cosmos Approaches

Cher Wang, CEO of HTC Corporation, is stepping down as head of the company.

Wang, who remains Chairwoman of the HTC board, will be replaced by Yves Maitre from French telecom company, Orange. In a press release, the company said its former CEO will now focus on “future technologies” including its Vive Reality initiative.

“When I took over as CEO four years ago, I set out to reinvent HTC as a complete ecosystem company and lay the foundations for the company to flourish across 5G and XR [extended reality],” Wang said in a prepared statement. “So, now is the perfect time to hand over the stewardship of HTC to a strong leader to guide us on the next stage of our journey,”

Wang became CEO of HTC in 2015, replacing Peter Chou. That was roughly a year before it launched the HTC Vive VR headset with Valve. Over the following years, HTC launched four more VR headsets, including the enterprise-focused Vive Pro and Vive Pro Eye as well as the standalone Vive Focus and Vive Focus Plus.

But, as HTC expands its VR operations, declining smartphone sales routinely led to poor fiscal reports.

Maitre’s appointment suggests the company isn’t ready to throw in the towel on smartphones yet. In a prepared statement, though, the new CEO emphasized “both 5G and XR” as future growth areas for the company.

Next month HTC will launch its second consumer-focused PC VR headset, the Vive Cosmos. The kit offers impressive optics and inside-out tracking, with the promise of modular upgrades. But, at $699, we’ll have to wait and see how it competes with the affordable ($399) Oculus Rift S and the high-end ($999) Valve Index.

The post HTC CEO Cher Wang Steps Down As Vive Cosmos Approaches appeared first on UploadVR.

February 7, 2019

MWC 2019: HTC CEO Cher Wang To Talk ‘Realizing Vive Reality’ At Keynote

HTC will take the stage at this month’s Mobile World Congress event, putting its Vive Reality initiative in focus.

Company CEO Cher Wang will host a keynote speech at this year’s show. HTC told us that the overall theme of her talk will concern “realizing Vive Reality”.

That’s a loaded topic for HTC. The term Vive Reality was first coined during 2018’s Vive Ecosystem Conference in china. At the time, the company said the term defined interconnecting technologies like VR, AR, 5G and AI. It’s Vive’s vision for an ecosystem in which, say, your phone can talk with your VR or AR headset, letting you know when you have new messages etc.

Since then, though, ‘Vive Reality’ has taken on another meaning at HTC too. At CES last month the company announced the Vive Reality System. This is a new VR platform set to power its upcoming Vive Cosmos platform. The service will provide direct access to Viveport but also let users meet up with friends in virtual environments and launch core apps like Mozilla’s VR browser.

We’d expect the MWC keynote to be largely concerned with the former use of the term. But that doesn’t mean that the Vive Reality System won’t play a part in the talk. In fact, we’re hoping HTC has some big announcements in store for MWC considering that we’re still waiting on a release date and price for the Vive Pro Eye and, well, just about any news on Cosmos.

The keynote kicks off at 14:30 CET on Monday, February 25th.

Tagged with: cher wang, htc vive, MWC, Vive Reality

March 6, 2018

HTC CEO: 5G Will Have A Big Impact On VR

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.”

HTC Vive stock image 1

Any future news on HTC’s VR projects will be reported here on VRFocus.

February 26, 2018

After Management Shuffle, HTC Says VR/AR More Important Than Ever to Its Future

At this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, HTC CEO Cher Wang took the stage to outline the company’s big picture approach to the future. The company is ostensibly putting increased focus on VR/AR with their newly coined ethos ‘Vive Reality’.

In the wake of the resignation of Chailin Chang, HTC’s President of Smartphone and Connected Devices Business, and the resultant merging of the company’s VR and smartphone divisions, the Taiwan-based manufacturer seems to be putting more emphasis on immersive platforms than ever according to a future outlined in today’s keynote.

To HTC, the near future will be a 5G-connected world where VR/AR devices expand their abilities thanks to cloud computing and AI; plenty of tech buzzwords to digest, but demonstrative of the company’s reliance on its VR platforms – Vive, Vive Pro, and Vive Focus, the company’s China-only 6DoF mobile VR headset.

While neither a timeframe nor specific plans for the company’s future were revealed in Wang’s keynote, her vision for the company appears much less smartphone-oriented, saying that while smartphones will “continue to play a vital part in the ecosystem, and will be the first step toward 5G for most of us,” that ultimately 5G networks “will enable every single VR and AR terminal to the most powerful device in the world.”

“5G will massively enlarge VR and AR capabilities by leveraging supercomputing power in the cloud while lowering device power consumption. VR and AR will no longer be constrained to local hardware and storage. Virtual and augmented reality are part of the ‘virtuality’ continuum. They will be combined in different proportions in devices in the future depending on our needs. Cloud computing over 5G will enable every single VR and AR terminal to the most powerful device in the world, bringing a more immersive experiences than ever. Smartphones will continue to play a vital part in the ecosystem, and will be the first step toward 5G for most of us. Smartphones may look different from the shiny rectangles that we know and love today. I think they will also take on other forms as 5G reduces the need for device-based computing power. In the future, the screen may be cobbled away from smartphones and displayed to our AR or VR devices, or directly even projected right onto our eyes.”

Wang further underlined its importance, saying that VR and AR devices will serve as the “the most essential portal to access AI.”

It makes sense that HTC is investing more time and money in its more successful ventures, and cutting its losses where it can. Having recently sold off much of its smartphone team to Google in a $1.1 billion deal, which saw half of HTC’s smartphone R&D division transferred to Google, the company has clearly reduced its ability to compete in at the same level globally.

The post After Management Shuffle, HTC Says VR/AR More Important Than Ever to Its Future appeared first on Road to VR.

February 14, 2017

The 2017 Lumiere Awards: Google and Dear Angelica Win Big

Tonight in Hollywood, California the Lumiere Awards were held at Warner Brothers Studios. These awards honor the year’s best in “cutting edge content and technology achievement.” This year, virtual and augmented reality were well represented throughout the ceremony. Check out this list of tonight’s biggest VR/AR winners.

Cher Wang – HTC Vive

AIS-VR Society President Jim Chabin and actress Maria Bello honored the CEO of HTC with the Sir Charles Wheatstone Award for exemplifying exceptional forward movement in the VR Sciences. HTC is the maker of the Vive VR headset, a monumental achievement in optics, controls and 3D positional tracking for VR.

Google Earth VR

Longtime Hollywood environmental activist, Ed Begley Jr. presented Google Earth VR with the Century Award for VR in service of environmental enrichment. Google Earth VR turns much of the world into a digital playground that you can fly or teleport around in immersive 3D space. From standing on top of the Empire State Building, to swooping into the Grand Canyon, Google Earth VR could certainly inspire anyone to protect the beauty of our planet.

Ghostbusters

The Ghostbusters VR Experience won Best VR live action experience. This is a VR installation put on by Sony Pictures Entertainment and The Void in New York City.

Dear Angelica

The recently released jaw-dropper from Oculus Studios won tonight’s Lumiere for Best VR Animated Experience. Dear Angelica was created using the new Oculus art program, Quill and the results are simply astonishing. Bring your Kleenex for this one.

Invisible

Doug Liman, 30 Ninjas, Condé Nast, Jaunt VR and Samsung won tonight’s Best 360 Series award for Invisible.

Nomads: Sea Gypsies

It was inevitable that Felix and Paul would end up on this list. The groundbreaking 360 video studio won the Best 360 Live Action award for this masterful work that gives viewers “an encounter with the Sama-Bajau people who have lived on the sea along the coasts of Borneo for centuries.”

The Click Effect

Best VR Documentary went to this piece of undersea VR journalism.

Branded Experience

The aptly named 360 Tour of the Shinola Factory with Luke Wilson won Best Branded VR experience.

Music

The beautiful string symphonies of Joshua Bell VR earned Sony PlayStation and Vicom Inc. the nod for Best VR Music Video.

Tilt Brush

The two-time Academy-award winning director Robert Stromberg presented the award for Best VR Experience to Google’s Tilt Brush. Tilt Brush is a tool for artistic creation that has become one of the most recognizable VR experiences and led to some truly beautiful creations.

Tagged with: cher wang, Dear Angelica, earth, google, Lumiere Awards, tilt brush, Vive