Seagate and HTC Jointly Announce VR Power Drive to Create a New VR Experience

Seagate, a world leader in data storage solutions, and HTC VIVE, an innovation world leader in the field of smart mobile devices and virtual reality (VR), have jointly launched the SeagateⓇ VR Power Drive at the 2018 HTC New Ecosystem Conference in Shenzhen, China, helping VR device users expand their storage capacity and battery life.

Virtual reality is developing with great speed and momentum in China, and VR applications are emerging one after another in the fields of entertainment, education and healthcare, etc. According to a report jointly released by iResearch and Greenlight Insights, China will become a main VR market globally. In 2016, the VR market in China reached RMB 3.46 billion (about US$550 million). With high growth rate, the VR market in China is estimated to exceed RMB 10 billion (about US$1.6 billion) in 2018. In the next five years, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the VR market could exceed 80 percent. Moreover, by 2021, China is forecast to become the largest VR market in the world, and the whole scale of the industry could reach RMB 79.02 billion (about US$ 12.64 billion), with the VR headset device market forecast to be RMB 29.75 billion (about US$4.76 billion). With the overall market for VR hardware expanding, the market of content, including VR games, VR films and television, as well as live streaming, are also growing rapidly, bringing more comprehensive entertainment experience to users.

Tailor-made for the high-end, all-in-one VR device VIVE FOCUS™, the Seagate VR Power Drive combines an external mobile media storage and portable battery into one solution. It helps users extend their use by providing them with plenty of additional storage space to carry and back-up their VR and mobile content as well as additional battery life.

Seagate VR Power Drive offers a storage capacity of 1000GB for users’ digital content. With its integrated MicroB cable and USB-C adapter, the drive can easily connect to the VIVE Focus without the help of a computer allowing users to directly access their library of files stored on the VR Power Drive from their VIVE Focus. Additionally, the built-in 5,000mAh battery of the drive allows users to extend the battery life of their VR device any time anywhere. The Seagate VR Power Drive also provides its users with a belt clip to increase the portability of the drive.

HTC smartphone users can expand the capacity of their mobile phones by connecting directly to the Seagate VR Power Drive to access and view, and backup their mobile content or extend the battery range of their phones with the flick of a switch to activate the power bank feature.

“Since the establishment of the strategic partnership with HTC Vive this January, we have been working together and committed to jointly developing solutions for VR devices. Today, we are delighted that we have devised the Seagate VR Power Drive, which is tailored to the Vive Focus, by applying Seagate’s unique storage expertise to meet VIVE Focus users’ increasing needs for data.” said Jim Murphy, executive vice president, worldwide sales and marketing, Seagate Technology. “Seagate has been paying close attention to the development of emerging application fields. We’ll continue to collaborate with industry-leading partners in accordance with the actual demands in the application market and join hands with them in the development of innovative storage products to deal with storage challenges together. In the years to come, we will continue to cooperate with HTC Vive, and further optimize storage solutions according to the characteristics of VR applications to better meet the special data needs of Vive products and bring Vive users the optimal experience.”

“We are extremely happy to form this cooperation with Seagate to offer a brand new type of accessory to the VIVE Reality ecosystem. As VR users become more mobile and smart phone users consume more rich media, the two things they both need are longer battery life and larger storage,” said Alvin Wang, president of HTC VIVE China. “The Seagate VR Power Drive is the perfect device to serve this need. Doubling battery life while putting hundreds of high-resolution movies in your pocket are benefits every modern user can see value in. This is just the beginning of a long and fruitful cooperation.”