HTC's Vive VR headset, being developed in collaboration with Valve, was supposed to be available to the public, in limited quantities, by the end of this year. Unfortunately, HTC put the brakes on that plan a couple weeks ago, saying it won't be released commercially—that is, to people other than developers—until April 2016. But there's apparently a good reason for the delay.
As reported by Engadget, HTC CEO Cher Wang said at the Vive Unbound developers forum last week that the decision was made to hold off on the launch after Valve and HTC made a "very, very big technological breakthrough." So big, in fact, that the initial release version of the headset was suddenly rendered effectively obsolete.
"We shouldn't make our users swap their systems later just so we could meet the December shipping date," Wang said.
Unfortunately, she didn't reveal anything about the exact (or even vague) nature of breakthrough—which presumably isn't Smell-O-Vision 2.0—but on the upside we won't have to wait until April to find out: The new technology will be unveiled at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, which runs from January 6-9 in Las Vegas.
