HTC has been at the top of the virtual ecosystem for almost four whole years now, and they don’t plan on letting up anytime soon. The company has been launching something they call the “Vive X Accelerator” for five years now, and the fifth version opened today. This is Vive’s and HTC’s $100 million program that is designed to give AR and VR developers the right software, hardware, and tools to create in their fields. This will also be giving plenty of developers much needed investing as well.
This program is open today, and will be running until the end of September. Online, you can submit your application for hardware, software, and guidance. If you are near a store, you can fill out the application on-site. Here, you will be around other developers, and HTC will be hosting gettogethers and meetings until the 30th as well.
This program first launched after the first Vive in 2016, and was exclusive to the United States. Since then, the company has reached all across countries in Asia, North America, Europe, and all over the Middle East. There are even physical locations for this program in London, San Francisco, Shenzhen, Taipei, Beijing, and Tel Aviv. At these locations, you can receive free guidance on your AR or VR app, operating systems, and even hardware suggestions from HTC’s best. HTC has been on record saying that there will be more locations popping up throughout the world in the near future.
HTC isn’t targeting any one type of studio with tis program either. Whether you are into AR medical assistance, VR clothing design, or even virtual reality gaming, HTC is looking to assist in some sort of way. Throughout the five years so far, the company has aided and assisted over 95 companies. This number will continue to skyrocket as VR and AR becoming more and more popular throughout the world.
Thanks to Magic Leap, the medical field is incorporating more and more AR. HTC and Vive have yet to release any AR products, but they are certainly trying to aid the growth of technology in that field. Whether HTC finds a product to release in that field or not, they are looking to be a part of the future of augmented reality.
Some notable companies that have been successful after applying for this program is mixed reality company LIV, wearable haptic company bHaptics, and the ever-learning brain computer Neurable.
To sign up for this fantastic program, you will need to have a HTC Vive account. This can be setup through an email or your social media accounts. From there, you will be directed to the application portal. At the time of this article being written, the website was experiencing a plethora of bugs. When clicking to apply as a developer, it would send you in an endless cycle of linking to and from the website, without the page ever actually loading.
Although we expect Vive to fix this bug relatively quickly, it is going to be causing problems for many companies trying to get their company on the prestigious portfolio of Vive for batch 5 of the Vive X Accelerator. If you visit the company website, you can see the different companies that have been accepted throughout the years. If their history tells us anything, they are going to be taking less then 20 companies this year. With how much money is invested into this program, each company will be getting a huge influx of cash, hardware, and software. For more VR news and updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
