Source: Days Tech
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is reportedly getting serious about getting into VR- virtual reality space, according to a report released this week. An individual familiar with the matter informed concerned reporters about ByteDance planning to investing a lot of money for the development related VR content.
Clearly, this appears like a large section of investment of the TikTok parent company going into hiring. As the reports suggest, more than 40 job listings that came up on Pico, the Chinese VR headset maker ByteDance took over last year. Most of the openings are reportedly for Pico Studios’ branches based in the west coast in California and Washington. Mainly, these openings are in the range of a game operation manager to a head of VR game strategy. Additionally, the other positions open are suggestive of increased focus on Pico’s VR hardware, which includes a systems design electrical engineer and an optical engineer.
Additionally, the reports points Pico’s listing of head of consumer sales as a potential indicator that the VR headset maker is hoping to set up a presence in the US. Specifically, the job description shows how the candidates would be ‘responsible for the sales and marketing’ of the company’s total product in the American consumer market.
Pico clearly still has a lot of growing to do:
With a long way to go for Pico, ByteDance, on the other hand, certainly has the bandwidth to provide the push it requires to compete with the group of mainstream headsets offered in the US by PlayStation, Meta, HTC and Valve. Pico’s flagship all-in-one headset launched in Europe in May, Pico Neo 3 and cost 449 euros ($472)
Evidently, Pico’s specs are quite similar to that of the 256GB Meta Quest 2 which costs $399 (contrary to the $299 variant worth 128GB). Both the headsets have the same storage 1832×1920 resolution at each eye, with the Snapdragon XR2. The Neo 3 Link, on the other hand, comes with an extra headset strap, which is the 256GB Meta Quest 2. Along with it, a DisplayPort connected instead of USB-C which enables provision for a improved image quality when connecting the headset to your PC.
Clearly, it appears like the Neo 3 link is looking to become that in-between choice for users who are not looking to spend $999 on the Valve Index or $799 HTC Vive Pro 2. Additionally, it is also looking for something that offers different from the Meta Quest 2.
