Facebook is holding its annual developer conference, F8, today. The Oculus VR owner wasn’t expected to make any big announcements in the virtual reality (VR) space, but did have one surprise for attendees. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just revealed that everyone at this year’s even will be getting a free Gear VR, the mobile-based VR head-mounted display (HMD) made in partnership between Oculus VR and Samsung. Not only that, but they’ll be getting a free phone to power it, too.
Zuckerberg confirmed as much during his opening keynote talk. It wasn’t clear exactly which phone the company will be giving out, though it’s likely to be one of the two latest versions in its S series of flagship phones, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7, or its latest enlarged device, the Galaxy Note 5. Devs will be able to get their hands on the kit at the event itself, though it doesn’t appear anyone will be lucky enough to get a free Oculus Rift, which started shipping out to consumers last week.
Facebook did spend some time talking about the Oculus Rift on-stage, but didn’t make mention of the shipping woes the device is experiencing right now, with many of the people that pre-ordered it having their orders pushed back months.
Check back with VRFocus for the latest on Facebook’s work in VR.
