Oculus, the Facebook-owned virtual reality company that we have known of so far, is being split into two to cater two distinct computing segments – PC and mobile. Announcing the split, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe also stated he will henceforth be heading the PC division. Further, it is Jon Thomason who will be looking at the mobile segment.
Iribe further stated the shakeup is as per a bigger game plan to push for greater proliferation of VR in the entire computing segment comprising of standalone PCs to mobiles. And how better to achieve that than to have a separate division dedicated to each segment, Iribe explained. Brendan Iribe and Palmer Luckey had founded Oculus back in 2012.
Facebook later acquired the company in 2014 for $2 billion. Luckey continues to be associated with Oculus though his new role is yet to be specified. Jon Thomason meanwhile joined Oculus just this summer. Luckey had run into some controversy owing to his donating to an organisation, Nimble America which again is believed to be pro-Trump.
Luckey later clarified his move claiming that he thought the organisation had fresh new ideas of communicating with young voters via billboards. Luckey also tendered an apology to anyone who might have had a negative perception of Oculus from his donating to Nimble America.
Iribe meanwhile exclaimed he is thrilled to have the chance to once again get deeply involved in developing something new and push the frontiers of technology. Iribe said he is looking forward to team up with Oculus chief scientist Michael Abrash once again. Abrash will be reporting to Iribe as it used to be before.
Oculus is also expected to continue their partnership with Samsung. The South Korean company right now offers the Gear VR headset powered by Oculus technology. The headset is designed to attach to Samsung’s range of premium handsets.
However, having designed its own prototype headset which does not need a smartphone for its working, Oculus’ partnership with Samsung could get restricted in scope in future. There is nothing definitive on this as yet, though.
Overall, Facebook’s VR obsession seems to have moved to a higher gear, and it will be interesting to see what new VR stuff social media giant has lined up for us in the not so distant future.
