Here at HTC Vive, we have long partnered with Qualcomm Technologies to bring amazing immersive mobile experiences to consumers and businesses. Throughout our history of making smartphones at HTC to creating VR headsets like Focus Plus, we leverage the latest and greatest processing power from Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform. Today we're furthering our commitment through an agreement to pre-integrate and optimize Vive's WAVE development platform for devices powered by Snapdragon including the Snapdragon 855, Snapdragon 865, Snapdragon XR1, and Snapdragon XR2 Platforms.

Starting now, the Vive Wave runtime will be made available to all Snapdragon customers on these chipsets. In addition, HTC engineers will offer testing and support for new deployments of the Wave platform as part of the agreement.For device manufacturers, whether a smartphone-powered VR experience or a stand-alone headset, the Wave platform delivers both a runtime and content library so that businesses and carriers can quickly offer new VR options for their customers with low overhead for engineering teams.

This work also allows us to create a turnkey XR solution by unlocking access to the VIVEPORT app store to deliver rich, immersive XR content.

A new category of VR experiences

Vive is known for both PC-VR and stand-alone headsets like the Focus Plus, but we also see growing interest in smartphone-driven experiences, especially as 5G comes online around the world. With Vive Wave runtime integrated on 5G smartphones powered by Snapdragon, operators will be able to easily deploy a connected VR experience to headset "XR viewers," tethered back to a smartphone.

XR viewers are glasses tethered to a 5G-enabled smartphone, via a USB-C cable, offering an immersive and accessible way to experience your favorite smartphone or VR apps as an augmented or mixed reality experience by utilizing Vive Wave. By combining the power and accessibility of 5G with the latest technology, you'll soon be able to access your favorite content anywhere.

Awarding Mobile VR Developers

In addition to access to the Vive Wave runtime and support from HTC engineers for new deployments, we're also awarding hard-working and creative developers. In October, we announced the 2020 Wave Developer Awards (WDA), a global contest for high-quality mobile VR content including games, videos, and applications (education/medical/art, etc). 24 titles have been shortlisted as WDA Finalists across two content standards—for three degrees of freedom (3DoF) and six degrees of freedom (6DoF)—for a chance to win prize money, the latest VR devices, and technical support and promotion opportunities.

All WDA entries will be published on Viveport automatically, included in the Viveport Infinity content library, and made available to users of standalone VR devices such as HTC VIVE, iQIYI QIYU VR, Pico, DPVR, Skyworth VR, and Shadow VR. Our Viveport China team is also organizing a virtual WDA ceremony on June 23, through the Engage Platform, to celebrate the winners.

Through the WDA and the availability of even more high-quality mobile VR content in Viveport Infinity, we're continually working hard to jointly promote the development of the mobile VR industry.

As technology moves forward, we're focused on being at the forefront of new innovations, such as next-generation XR viewers powered by 5G smartphones, by providing an open platform for easy mobile VR development through Vive Wave.