HTC announces key strategic partnerships across the board at the 2017 VIVE Ecosystem Conference to solidify its VR market leadership

SHENZHEN, China, March 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HTC Corporation ("HTC"), a pioneer in innovative, smart mobile and virtual reality (VR) technologies, celebrated the start of the 2017 Vive Ecosystem Conference (VEC2017) today, bringing together VR leaders and experts from all over the world to discuss VR industry insights and trends. As Vive's biggest yearly industry conference, it served as the platform for a myriad of major strategic partnerships across multiple sectors and new technology announcements that will impact the industry.

"2016 was clearly an important year for Vive and the entire VR industry, and with all the major announcements made today 2017 is off to a great start. With the main stream entertainment industry coming into VR in a major way, its awareness and understanding will soon reach new heights. The entire VR industry is looking for new revenue sources and distribution channels, and today's announcement reinforces Vive's role in enabling a sustainable ecosystem." said Mr. Alvin W. Graylin, China Regional President of Vive.

Empowering developers to unleash world-leading innovations

With IVRI as a platform, Vive and the Shenzhen government will work together to enable new breakthroughs across various areas of VR including devices, technologies, industry applications, and big data, with the objective to drive the transformation and upgrade of relevant industries and make Shenzhen a global center for VR research, development, and applications. Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC, who will serve as President of IVRI, VR pioneer Dr. Tom Furness, and many other industry experts are set to partner with IVRI to support its development.

Developer participation is crucial to the expansion of the Vive ecosystem, and Vive made several announcements today to bolster support for the community. The company revealed the winners of the VIVEPORT™ Developer Awards China, where winners received 100,000 RMB in cash and finalists were given a consumer edition of HTC Vive. Select winning applications, games, and tools will soon be available to Viveport users nationwide. Please visit https://blog.vive.com/cn/2017/03/27/vda-china for a detailed list of award winners.

The second batch of companies selected for Vive X, Vive's global accelerator program, were also announced at VEC2017. Over 30 new companies from eight countries around the world were chosen to help build and advance the global VR and AR ecosystem together. Viveport M also signed a multi-party partnership agreement with six VR viewer manufacturers to expand Viveport's reach around the globe to 10+ million new mobile VR users by year's end. In exciting news for consumers, a new monthly subscription service will also open for orders soon, allowing users to subscribe five VR apps on Viveport for only 29.99 RMB per month, and the first month is free.

Creating a sustainable revenue model for VR developers has always been of great interest to Vive. This set the stage for today's launch of Vive's VR Ad Service and Viveport SDK, which provides brands exciting new ad formats to reach consumers and enables developers with in-app-payment models and multi-user services. Developers interested in more information about the service, please visit https://developer.viveport.com/.

Three key target markets: Entertainment, Education and Enterprise

To help push VR to mass awareness, a strategic partnership between Vive and Warner Bros. was also announced at the conference, whereby Vive will serve as the exclusive VR partner for all content and online/offline activations for the highly anticipated theatrical and home entertainment release of Steven Spielberg's coming film, Ready Player One.

To drive the growth of VR entertainment, Vive signed an agreement with GOME, the largest home appliance retail channel in China. Under this agreement, Vive will serve as GOME VR cinemas' main technology partner and provide support for China's first chain of one hundred VR locations this year.

Meanwhile, VIVEPAPER™ signed a strategic partnership agreement with Qingdao Publishing Group to construct a "Demonstration Platform for VR Reading and Innovative Education" set to reach key schools in major cities nationwide in the coming years. The platform will fully mobilize the content and channel resources of Qingdao Publishing Group and industry partners to distribute VR education content and services to schools, libraries, and Xinhua Bookstores. VR technology and platforms including Vivepaper will be used to implement the content and services.

To serve the needs of the entertainment, enterprise and education markets, Vive officially introduced the Vive group edition bundle (Vive GE) to the China market, which offers 10 sets of Vive BE (business edition) HMDs and 2 lighthouse base stations for 49,999 RMB, available for order today at http://groupedition.vive.cn. It will enable multi-user scenarios well suited for cinemas, arcades, and schools, bringing Vive's top quality VR experience to a wider audience at a more affordable price for business owners.

With the host of groundbreaking announcements made with many partners across several industries during today's VEC2017, Vive sends a clear message to the whole VR industry that, VR is on-track to make an even bigger impact on our lives and work in the coming year.

About the Vive Virtual Reality System

Vive is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality system developed in partnership by HTC and Valve. Designed from the ground up for room-scale VR, Vive allows true-to-life interactions and experiences thanks to an adjustable headset displaying stunning graphics, two wireless controllers with HD haptic feedback and 360˚ absolute motion tracking. For a convenient and safe experience, Vive incorporates essential functionality from your phone and features a front facing camera that blends physical elements into the virtual world. Working in concert, this system immerses you visually, physically and emotionally in the virtual world. For more information on Vive, please visit www.vive.com.

About HTC

HTC Corporation aims to bring brilliance to life. As a global innovator in smart mobile and virtual reality devices and technology, HTC has produced award-winning products and industry firsts since its inception in 1997, including the critically acclaimed HTC One and HTC Desire lines of smartphones, and is now leading the VR industry with the Vive line of products. The pursuit of brilliance is at the heart of everything we do, inspiring best-in-class design and game-changing mobile and virtual reality experiences for consumers around the world. HTC is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2498). www.htc.com.

SOURCE HTC Vive

Related Links

http://www.vive.com