HP allegedly wants out of VR - rumor
HP is rumored to be getting out of the VR business. HP's VR products are mainly aimed at business customers and VR enthusiasts.
According to VR analyst Brad Lynch, HP plans to "finish VR related production by the end of the year". Support will continue until 2026.
"They have big amounts of devices produced already, but they will be selling them very cheap. Including Omnicept edition. That's the end of HP in VR for now," Lynch said on Twitter. Lynch has a good track record with his industry leaks.
When we asked, HP did not comment directly on Lynch's rumors about a possible end to its VR business. The company did release the following statement, which is open to interpretation:
"The work of our HP Extended Reality (XR) team has produced exciting innovations with which we continue to create immersive experiences. Our customers are at the center of our strategy, and we will continue to evolve our offerings to best meet their needs. Our work in the XR market provides a solid foundation on which to build."
Deep discounts on the Reverb G2
The company launched an attractive Black Friday offer back in November 2022. In the US, the HP Reverb G2 (Rev. 2) was briefly available for around $300 instead of $600.
This is a revision with more features, a new USB cable and software improvements. It should fix connection problems and original weaknesses like the inside-out tracking. The latter uses the outdated WMR (Windows Mixed Reality) standard and cannot quite keep up with Meta's more accurate tracking, for example.
Like other technology companies, HP has announced layoffs. Following a decline in PC revenue (-13 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022), the company announced plans to cut costs in November 2022.
Over a three-year period, HP plans to lay off a total of 4,000 to 6,000 employees, according to CNBC. As of October 2022, the company had a total of about 58,000 employees. As in other parts of the PC industry, the poor performance follows a boom from the pandemic.
HP has a great reputation in VR
HP's PC VR headsets are particularly popular with people who like a sharp VR image. The HP Reverb G2 (review), due out in 2020, may not offer high-end resolution with 2160 by 2160 pixels per eye, but the image is still impressive. This is especially true for flight simulators like Microsoft Flight Simulator, or for business users who need sharp details and readable fonts in training applications.
In keeping with HP's focus on business customers, an "Omnicept Edition" with eye tracking was released in 2021 with a starting price of $1249. It also offers eye tracking and foveated rendering, camera-based face tracking, a heartbeat sensor, and biometric data analysis.
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