Chinese electronics company Oppo unveiled its own mixed-reality headset this Wednesday. However, “Oppo MR Glass Developer Edition” is not meant for everyone. Instead, the company aims to use the new device to entice developers to create apps suited for mixed reality.
The device follows the release of Oppo Air Glass 2 in 2022. However, instead of appearing as a normal-sized pair of glasses, the MR Glass Developer Edition will be a huge headset that will house Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Plus chipset. It also comes with a pair of controllers, allowing users to interact with the visuals projected in front of them.
The headset will arrive to developers in China in the second half of 2023, but the company still has no clear plans on whether it will be made commercially available. A report from CNBC clarifies this, with Oppo admitting that the device is meant for developers. Oppo XR technology director Xu Yi told the media outlet that the company wants to use the headset to allow developers “create apps and figure out the best uses for mixed reality technology.”
To further explain the company’s decision over the device’s target market, Xu said today’s mixed reality still needs improvements in different sections, including in tech itself and specific applications. Xu added that AR “is not there yet, it may be several years away.” With this, Oppo thinks involving different developers in exploring the tech by giving them a dedicated device is the right move.
This puts Oppo on a path different from its tech competitors, which are now manufacturing AR headsets as part of their brand offerings. Some include Microsoft, Xiaomi, Meta, and Apple. The latter is expected to reveal its ‘Apple Reality Pro‘ headset in the coming days, which is reportedly armed with two 1.41-inch Micro OLED screens with 4,000 ppi each and 5,000 nits of brightness. Meta, meanwhile, is now preparing its Quest 3 headset, which reportedly received huge improvements compared to its predecessor.
