We already knew demand for Vive trackers was high. The company recently revealed that it received far more requests for trackers than it had hardware to give away. Now we’ve found out that the demand exceeds the volume of hardware HTC can produce.
HTC revealed the Vive Tracker universal Lighthouse-tracked device at CES 2017. These devices will pave the way for all sorts of interesting interactions in VR. You can mount the trackers to almost anything, including real-world items, such as a baseball bat; specialized peripherals, such as light guns; and you can even use them to keep track of your pet’s whereabouts while you’re wearing a Vive HMD.
Over the past couple months, HTC gave away 1,000 Vive Trackers to developers who pitched interesting ideas, such as Cloudgate’s full body tracking system). In February, HTC revealed that developers flooded its offices with requests for free trackers. The company received more than 2,300 pitches and had to choose the best candidates from the bunch.
The developers who didn’t make the cut had to wait until HTC started selling Vive Trackers, which began on March 27. It didn’t take long for HTC’s entire first run to get snatched up, though. The company sent out a tweet in the evening of March 29 to announce that the “first wave” of Vive Trackers is sold out in the US. You can still order a Vive Tracker, but your request will end up in a backorder queue. HTC said it would ship the back ordered Trackers in the order they are received, but there is no indication how long the delay will be.
We’ve reached out to HTC for further details.
