When pre-orders for the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD) went live in January this year, 22 countries around the world were included in the shipping destinations. Most of Europe was covered and naturally North America, but over in Asia only Japan and Taiwan were included. Both are tech hubs, but one of the biggest is South Korea – where companies such as Samsung and LG herald from – and that wasn’t included. Now it seems Oculus VR is making progress to address the issue.
Oculus has now made an application for a radio wave certification with the Korea Communications Commission for the Oculus Rift, reports The Korea Herald. In the country it’s mandatory for every electronic device that connects to a network to have this certificate, so the application is a major step to releasing the headset there.
It’s unclear how long it’ll take for Oculus VR to get the certification but the company is already planning ahead by patenting several of its brands, including Oculus, Oculus Connect and Oculus Ready.
The Samsung and Oculus made Gear VR on the other hand is supposedly ruling the roost so far. Oculus’ virtual reality (VR) partner could even be helping the company reach its home market as it would know all the legalities in getting devices approved.
South Korea is very much a country on the cusp of technology with smartphones and other devices developed by global companies based there. Over the weekend VRFocus reported on the Nexon Computer Museum releasing a survey about VR. Amongst the questions asked to visitors were how many knew about VR, with 89 percent of respondents saying they’d heard about the technology, and 68 percent having tried it.
Oculus VR has just announced its annual event – Oculus Connect 3 – will be taking place in October and the backlog of shipments has now been rectified. For all the latest news on Oculus VR, keep reading VRFocus.
