The original HTC Vive "comes out of the market" with the launch of Cosmos



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Nearly three and a half years after having released Facebook's Oculus Rift with more features, HTC is removing its VR headset to the scale of the original part – the HTC Vive.

The remarkable PC-powered system was shipped for the first time in April 2016 at a price of $ 800 as a result of a partnership between Valve and HTC. The Facebook Oculus Rift was sent around the same time, but without large scale controllers or monitoring. Facebook finally added these features and dropped the price of Rift well below Vive. Despite everything, Vive has early captured the imagination of many developers and buyers thanks to its robust support for these features.

In 2019, about 1/3 of VR headsets using Valve's Steam are HTC Vives. Vive finally dropped his price to about $ 500 before his interruption. He will be replaced by Vive Cosmos starting at $ 700.

For all readers who might be moved at this moment, let me plunge you into tears by recommending you to watch again this 2016 video showing the capabilities of the system:

HTC plans to continue to sell and support the Vive Pro and Vive Pro Eye systems, its much more expensive tracking systems, focused on business use scenarios and also based on Valve's SteamVR tracking technology.

"We currently have no plans to abandon SteamVR tracking in any way," said Dan O'Brien, general manager of HTC's VR for the Americas. "Valve is a very good partner and we will continue to enjoy the benefits of this partnership."

Cosmos relies on an end-to-end tracking solution such as Facebook's $ 400 Rift S, which replaced the original Rift earlier this year. Valve, meanwhile, was targeting the high-end market in 2019 with its own Index VR system available as a full package at $ 1,000, as an HMD upgrade only from the original Vive and its SteamVR tracking system priced at $ 500, or as an HMD. plus the new index controller package for $ 750.

"The launch of Vive CE has sparked a lot of reactions, including what has become Vive Pro and Vive Pro Eye," O'Brien said. "And that will continue its momentum, we will continue in this strategy, but we felt that it was time to start finding a new replacement for the Long live CE. This product will start coming out of the market very soon. At the end of the quarter, the channel will become very rare. Our current offer comes at the end of his life. We are very proud of this reference and the time we spent on the market. It is rare for a consumer electronics company to have a product that lives as long in commerce and on the market. "

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