Facebook’s virtual reality business, Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi and chip maker Qualcomm this week announced a partnership to develop VR headsets.
Under the agreement, announced Monday at CES in Las Vegas, Oculus — the VR startup acquired by Facebook in 2014 — will work with Xiaomi on the new Oculus Go headset expected to launch early this year.
In addition, the companies will develop another headset, the Mi VR Standalone, exclusively for the Chinese market.
Oculus officials said that the Chinese headset would share core hardware and design components with the Oculus Go, which would help the company’s developers bring their content to the world’s largest country.
Both headsets will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 Mobile VR Platform.
The agreement, Oculus wrote, “will deliver the next generation of VR products at accessible prices to people worldwide.”
Facebook was the world’s No. 3 maker of VR headsets — trailing only Samsung and Sony — according to a September analysis by IDC.
Filed Under: Devices
