Asus confirms development of augmented reality glasses

Asus CEO Jerry Shen confirms that the company wants to release augmented reality glasses. The glasses should be available in the coming year. It is unclear whether Asus is entering into the project in collaboration with Microsoft.

Cnet reports this following an earnings webcast from Asus. Until recently, the company was in talks with Microsoft about developing augmented reality glasses. Asus then explored the possibility of making its own version of the HoloLens. No details are known about the further development of these plans. It is expected that the price of the Asus glasses will be below that of the HoloLens. The latter will cost 3000 dollars, converted 2800 euros. However, this also involves the devkit. It is not yet certain if and when a consumer version will be available.

With this announcement, Asus is moving towards augmented reality as opposed to virtual reality. CEO Jerry Shen says “you can be completely immersed in an augmented reality scene” and that “augmented reality is going to play an important role in people’s lives.”

Asus mainly focuses on the computer market. Nevertheless, there is a clear trend towards expanding the range to include the Zenfones and the Zenwatch. Shen also announced that Asus will ship 20.5 million smartphones by the end of this year and is on track to grow to 30 million by 2016.