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Asus working on augmented reality headset, due out 2016

Jerry Shen, the CEO, confirmed the news on Wednesday during an earnings call. “We think AR (augmented reality) will be very important for people’s lives”. ASUS didn’t offer any details on how much it’s own version will cost, but it sounds like the company could jump straight to a more affordable consumer model.

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Furthermore, Mr. Shen also announced the company’s plan for service robot’s release next year. The current frontrunner in this nascent field is Microsoft’s HoloLens, which the company has shown off in a range of impressive demos. Microsoft’s HoloLens AR glasses are set to launch in early 2016 at a hefty $3,000 for the developer edition, but back in October ASUS and Microsoft were discussing the idea of collaborating to launch a cheaper variant of HoloLens.

While this is no doubt a good move, as it will allow ASUS to target a different sector of the market to Microsoft, our own Matt Smith’s impressions of the Hololens headset weren’t all positive. While virtual reality (VR) is a fully-immersive experience that puts people in imaginary or real world environments, AR headsets add simulated items to the real world. “You can make a real setting meld together with yourself and the AR portion”, said Shen.

Little is known about the Asus Augmented Reality headset aside from the fact they are “talking about how to prepare” internally for the product.

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Are you on the Virtual Reality bandwagon or more interested in Augmented Reality? While console makers might wall off a few games behind exclusive contracts, for the most part if there are competing hardware standards, we see a better deal when it comes to our technology purchases.

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen