Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that the company’s Oculus division is working on a standalone version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, with no wires and no connection to a PC.
Zuckerberg announced the prototype at the Oculus Connect developer event in San Jose, California, where 2,500 developers are attending the three-day event. He said that the prototype sits between mobile VR, where you use a headset with a mobile phone’s screen such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Google Pixel, and the Oculus Rift, which connects through wires to a PC.
“You can’t take it out with you into the world. There is a sweet spot in between these,” Zuckerberg said. “A standalone product that you can take with you into the world. We are working on this now. It’s still early.”
He said that Facebook has invested $250 million in VR content already, and it will invest another $250 million in future projects, including $10 million for investment. Facebook is doing this because it believes VR will be the next major computing platform, Zuckerberg said.