One of the key pillars of Future Lab Program is for Sony to be more open about their upcoming but that doesn’t mean the company is going to spill the beans on everything that’s in the pipeline. But lets back track for a second and see how we got here. David Gilbert writes for the IBT:
According to a patent filed by Sony last year, the company may be developing a pair of VR headsets: One appears to be similar to the Gear VR, while the other is closer to a standard pair of glasses to which the smartphone would be attached. The patent says the two devices would feature sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes as well as onboard processors and memory, meaning they would be much more than Google’s simple Cardboard model.
So does this mean we can see something like the Galaxy Gear VR from Sony? Apparently not. More after jump.
Apparently a Sony spokesperson
denied the company is developing a VR system for smartphones.
First this comes as no surprise for the obvious reason that no company preemptively announces their own products until they feel that it’s ready to be seen, which translates to being ready to be sold soon. Second, Sony is already betting heavily on virtual reality with PlayStation VR. Seeing how small of a demand there is from consumers for VR and even less content, it would be silly to attack the new category with two products. VR is still years away from becoming mainstream and Sony is doing the wiser thing and releasing a gaming version of it, seeing how gamers tend to be early adopters in tech.
Make no mistake, in some lab somewhere, Sony has prototype versions of a VR headset that’s geared towards mobile phones but that doesn’t mean it’s something they plan on releasing today. The Sony of old would have likely announced such a product already but luckily the Sony of today is showing more restraint.
Discuss:
Do you think it’s wise for Sony to hold off on a mobile VR headset for the time being?
[Via IBT]