LG Is Making A ‘Next-Gen’ VR HMD, Details At 11

LG made a non-announcement announcement concerning a new “next-gen” VR HMD it’s developing. The announcement, in full, is below:

LG Electronics will unveil its first VR HMD prototype at this year's GDC in San Francisco, CA. Being shown in Valve's GDC booth, the LG HMD prototype is designed to deliver a high fidelity, next generation VR experience.During the show, LG will be meeting with developers to collect feedback and impressions as part of its effort to define the first commercial units. Pricing, launch dates, and territories will be announced at a later date.

Couple things: First of all, this is not LG’s first VR HMD. That honor goes to the LG 360 VR, a rather disappointing device that nevertheless offered a unique phone-connected setup. LG debuted the LG 360 VR HMD along with the LG G5 smartphone almost exactly one year ago at Mobile World Congress.

Second, the announcement offers virtually no details; all one can extract from this is that it’s VR, not AR or MR. Probably. (We don’t even have an image to include with this article.)

Pictured: NOT the new LG VR HMD

Third, although we’re going to have a chance to have an up-close and in-person look at this mystery HMD this week, we expect a rough prototype.

Why “rough?” When it comes to hardware, we see prototypes all the time, but often companies are showing us products that are mostly finished and just need a little polish before they launch to the public. We always give feedback, and sometimes companies use tradeshow time to hear what the lot of us in the tech media think, and sometimes they alter the final product a little.

In LG’s case, though, if you examine the language of the announcement, it sounds like the company is not that far along in the process. This is the telling bit: “LG will be meeting with developers to collect feedback and impressions as part of its effort to define the first commercial units.“

The “first commercial units” are not yet “defined.” That could technically mean anything, but we presume it means that LG may still be deciding on which components and features to implement. Eye tracking? External trackers for hands? Passthrough camera? And so on and so forth.

LG is hanging out in Valve’s booth at GDC, so that tells you something, and we know that it supports SteamVR.

However, again by parsing the language of the note, it appears that we’ll see the device in action. We assume the “impressions” LG is seeking will be about the demos we see, not about whether we think the mocked-up headset looks neat or not.

In other words, the LG VR HMD could be just about anything. The biggest question is whether LG is taking the Wintel VR route or if it’s throwing its lot in with the Qualcomm VR initiative. Given that LG is experienced with Android more than Windows, we would bet on the latter.

We’ll know more later this week. Stay tuned.

  • John Nemesh
    Apparently, LG is licensing the tech from Valve! So expect a REAL competitor to the HTC Vive when it ships!
    Reply
  • zambutu
    This is what we need to keep the advancements coming and the prices down. The Vive and Rift need a price drop and we should be hearing about gen 2 by now, or at least a 1.5 update.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    The problem is that next gen is even more expensive than gen1... so there is not market to them yet.
    Reply
  • metathias
    Gen1 is way overpriced. Cost of production is less than half of what either HTC, or Oculus is charging. Their raking in the money right now. More competition is desirable.
    Reply
  • zambutu
    19361374 said:
    Gen1 is way overpriced. Cost of production is less than half of what either HTC, or Oculus is charging. Their raking in the money right now. More competition is desirable.

    I don't know what the production costs were, but i'm sure they are less now. But still, they have to pay for all that R&D out of the markup. Even if they sold them for 100$ they'd still be losing money for years to come.

    Reply
  • zambutu
    19361374 said:
    Gen1 is way overpriced. Cost of production is less than half of what either HTC, or Oculus is charging. Their raking in the money right now. More competition is desirable.

    And Bam..there's the big Oculus price drop

    Reply
  • bit_user
    19365642 said:
    And Bam..there's the big Oculus price drop
    Maybe they're just trying to dump their inventory, in case Zenimax's injunction is sustained.
    Reply
  • zambutu
    19366750 said:
    19365642 said:
    And Bam..there's the big Oculus price drop
    Maybe they're just trying to dump their inventory, in case Zenimax's injunction is sustained.

    It may be so, but I doubt it. I think this is how they're trying to cut through all their past controversy and miss steps, and try to get their dwindling foothold back in the market place.

    Reply
  • bit_user
    19366965 said:
    It may be so, but I doubt it. I think this is how they're trying to cut through all their past controversy and miss steps, and try to get their dwindling foothold back in the market place.
    I hope so. I'd be really sad if Zenimax manages to single-handedly derail the VR revolution.
    Reply