HTC was part of a historic deal with Google, where the latter paid $1.1 billion to acquire certain HTC employees and IP belonging to HTC. This revenue will help HTC offset some of the losses that it faced in its mobile phone business. The deal will also allow the company to improve on the Vive VR technology and the apps that run on it. In this regard, HTC is now convincing Vive app developers to lower the price of their programs.
HTC’s proposal to Vive app developers
The Vive VR headset is a popular technology among gamers. Even though the smartphone side of HTC’s business has faltered in the past few years, the Vive sector has boomed.
After the deal with Google, HTC is trying to cut down the prices of its Vive VR apps, in a bid to increase the sales of the hardware.
To convince the app developers on the platform, HTC has announced that it will relinquish the 30 percent cut of revenue that it receives from app sales until the end of 2017. This means that any revenue generated from the sale of apps on the Htc Vive will go into the app developers’ pockets and not to HTC. Post-December 31 this year, however, HTC will once again be entitled to receive 30 percent of the revenue generated from sales of its app.
It seems that the Taiwanese company is trying to maximize the sales of the VR headset in the holiday season. With the cost of apps going down, more customers may be enticed to get a hold of the Vive.
The Viveport Store opened with just 60 apps last year, but that number has now increased to more than 1,000. Around 26,000 app developers have already signed up to the platform.
HTC’s proposal to arcade managers
Arcade operators in several countries charge customers on an hourly basis for the use of the Vive VR. Normally, the revenue generated from such arcades is split in half between the arcade managers and HTC.
However, until the end of 2017, HTC will allow arcade managers to keep 70 percent of the revenue instead. It is known that the Arcade Viveport Manager is being tested in 15 countries and offers more than 700 different titles for users to experience.
HTC is also currently working on a new device called Vive Focus. According to Phone Arena, "unlike the original Vive, the Vive Focus doesn't need to be connected to a computer, and is powered by the Snapdragon 835 chipset. In the U.S., the Focus will support Google's Daydream VR platform. We could hear more about this device on October 4th," during Google’s event.
