Category: HTC Vive Cosmos

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Oculus Rift Pulls Ahead Again In December Steam Hardware Survey

HTC Vive Oculus Rift Windows Mixed Reality Controllers

I was half expecting to write that the combined power of the Vive and Vive Pro had allowed HTC to regain the top spot it once held for so long in December’s Steam Hardware Survey. Turns out the opposite is true; the Oculus Rift gained ground this month.

In November 2018’s results, there was less than 1% difference between Rift and the total of both Vive and Vive Pro. HTC looked like it had Oculus on the ropes. But, instead of continuing that trend, December saw the gap grow to 2.28%. Rift ended the month with 46.45% of the total VR user share on Steam (up from 45.88%). Vive, meanwhile, shrank to 40.82% (down from 42.76%). Finally, Pro came in at 2.81% (up from 2.5%).

No doubt Christmas sales helped Rift and Vive Pro grow in December. HTC focused on Pro for its Black Friday promotion and Oculus cut $50 off of the Rift. A lot of the headsets bought in November were probably unwrapped in December.

But don’t discredit the growth of other headsets contributing to Vive’s smaller number. Microsoft’s Windows VR headsets saw a significant leap of their own in December. The range of partner-made devices grew from 7.77% to 8.89%. Again, a wide range of sales, some of which offered the headsets for around $199, probably helped. Samsung also launched its Odyssey+ headset towards the end of the year which caused a stir.

There was also the slightest bit of growth from Huawei’s VR kit, going from 0% to 0.02%. You’ll get there, little guy!

As always, we’ll mention that these figures aren’t a definitive means of measuring the VR market. This is an optional survey and you need to have your hardware plugged in (and using Steam) for it to register. Neither HTC nor Facebook has revealed sales figures for their headsets.

Still, a new year is upon us and we’re excited to see how the scales shift in 2019. More than anything, though, we’re eager to see what new headsets might join the chart.

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HTC Files for ‘Vive Cosmos’ VR Headset Trademark

With middling smartphone sales and a loss of a major portion of its smartphone IP and engineering team to Google last year, HTC appears to be full steam ahead with VR headsets as of late. Now, a trademark filing has surfaced that throws the name ‘Vive Cosmos’ into the mix, possibly pointing to the company’s next VR headset.

As first reported by Venture Beat, Dutch tech publication MobielKopen has uncovered a trademark filed with European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) that stakes a claim on the name ‘Vive Cosmos’.

While description of the device is fairly short, it’s clear HTC has their sights on another VR headset with the Vive Cosmos naming scheme.

Here’s a truncated description, taken from the EUIPO filing:

Head mounted display for computer simulated reality; computer hardware; computer simulated reality software; computer simulated reality game software; handheld controllers for use in computer simulated reality environment; optical devices, namely, eye pieces for head mounted displays…

It’s impossible to infer anything else at this point without direct confirmation from HTC, or at very least an FCC filing to seal the deal—the latter typically being one of the final steps towards productization—but that never stopped us from throwing some healthy conjecture your way.

A leak from Valve earlier this month revealed that the company is creating a new high field of view (FOV) headset, with images showing it in what appears to be a late stage prototype, or possible early developer kit. Valve worked closely with HTC to bring the original HTC Vive to market in early 2016, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a potential Vive Cosmos could be the result of a similar partnership. The Cosmos naming scheme certainly makes you think of something large and spatial, two things that the supposed high FOV Valve headset has in spades.

Unspecified Valve VR Headset, Image courtesy 2flock

On the flip side, Valve has also created hardware with the help of other manufacturers such as Flex Ltd. (previously Flextronics) and Foxconn to bring a number of devices to market under its own branding such as the Steam Controller, Steam Controller Wireless Receiver, and Steam Link—making the previous supposition a rash, albeit interesting stab at what’s next for VR’s second gen headsets.

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HTC Announces 6DOF Controller Tracking Dev Kit for Vive Focus

With the HTC’s enterprise-focused 6DOF standalone Vive Focus headset hitting western shores earlier this month, and a new McLaren branded HTC Vive Pro now available to consumers as of last week, it’s at very least clear HTC is continuing its ongoing journey to put VR closer at the core of its business.

Where an HTC Vive Cosmos fits in the diverging spectrum of consumer, prosumer, enterprise-focused, standalone, or tethered PC headset, we just can’t say right now—but you can bet we’ll be keeping out eyes peeled.

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HTC Files Trademark For ‘Vive Cosmos’ VR Equipment

HTC Files Trademark For ‘Vive Cosmos’ VR Equipment

HTC may finally be rolling out its Vive Focus standalone headset to businesses this month, but a new trademark filing has us wondering what else the company is working on.

The Taiwanese smartphone maker recently filed a trademark at the EUIPO (first spotted by Dutch site Mobielkopen) for something called ‘Vive Cosmos’. There’s no exact description of what the name refers to, but the listing does state it’s related to a ‘head mounted display for computer simulated reality’ amongst other things like ‘eye pieces for head mounted displays’ and ‘handheld controllers for use in computer simulated reality environment’. That all sounds like VR to us.

These terms do have us wondering if the trademark might be referring to a new VR headset from HTC such as a successor to the Vive Pro or perhaps a new name for the Vive Focus once it gets those promising six degrees of freedom (6DOF) controllers we saw earlier this month. This is complete speculation on our part but we wonder if the company could be planning a new PC-based Vive that takes advantage of HTC’s new inside-out tracking tech, much like the newly rumored Oculus Rift S. Or maybe it’s just something that will accommodate Valve’s new SteamVR tech like the Knuckles controllers.

Interestingly the trademark also notes that the listing is related to ‘computer peripherals for mobile devices for remotely accessing and transmitting data’, which suggests that whatever this new product is it could be linked to wireless VR. Perhaps a new Vive could come with the tech from HTC’s recently released Vive wireless adapter (which some Ryzen owners are having to return) embedded?

Either way, the listing’s appearance online has us hoping that whatever HTC’s planning will be showing up in the New Year. The company used CES 2018 to announce the Vive Pro headset, so perhaps we could see something there.

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