Analyst firm CCSInsight predicts that Taiwan's HTC will exit the virtual reality device industry by 2026, just as it lost the smartphone market to Macheng. HTC is a pioneer in the smartphone market, launching several models that break the mold in terms of design, performance and functionality. The company's HTC Hero, HTC Legend, HTC Desire and HTC One were all leading Android phones.
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But in 2017, HTC more or less exited the smartphone market and sold its phone business to Google. The company has since made a major push into consumer hardware with its line of Pixel devices and Nest smart home products.
HTC has bet its future largely on the integration of the virtual world and the real world. In January, the company launched the ViveXRElite device, a lightweight headset focused on gaming, fitness, and productivity that sells for $1,099.
CCSInsight believes that due to declining revenue and increasingly fierce competition from Meta, Sony and Apple, HTC will eventually withdraw from the VR field.
Ben Wood, principal analyst at CCSInsight, said: "HTC is one of the pioneers in VR and they've done a lot of work on this. But they're kind of stuck in the competition because they're not competing on price, whereas Meta and Quest are ready to do very aggressive pricing - almost just pricing above cost - to drive adoption."
Wood continued: "HTC may get a bit of a boost with Apple coming in because of Apple's renewed interest in this space. However, ultimately, we think it will be difficult for them to stay there. So we predict that by 2026, they will exit this market and sell their intellectual property to other larger players in this space."
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