April 30, 2019 – Today at F8, Oculus introduced its new ‘Oculus for Business’ enterprise solution, designed to streamline and expand virtual reality in the workplace. Launching this autumn, the expanded Oculus for Business will add Oculus Quest to the hardware lineup and provide a suite of tools designed to help companies reshape the way they do business through the utilisation of VR.
Oculus for Business is aiming to simplify enterprise VR through a holistic approach designed especially for large-scale deployments. This includes a dedicated software suite offering device setup and management tools, enterprise-grade service and support, and a new user experience customized for business use cases. Oculus stated that it is also working closely with leaders in enterprise IT and services to develop ways to integrate VR alongside the workflows and services that businesses already use.
As well as new software, Oculus will also be offering new enterprise-grade Oculus hardware bundles that will be available for bulk purchase. Oculus Go (USD $599, 64GB) is the lightweight and affordable option that the company states is best suited for immersive video, while Oculus Quest (USD $999, 128GB) is Oculus’ first all-in-one 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) untethered headset that offers fully immersive experiences out of the box and includes Oculus Touch controllers.
Each Oculus for Business hardware bundle purchase will include an enterprise warranty with full software access and support for one year. After the first year, software access is available for an annual fee (USD $180 per headset).
The company originally launched Oculus for Business at OC4 in 2017. Oculus stated that since then, its customers have “pioneered VR in different ways, creating custom applications to onboard employees, collaborate remotely, and visualize data.”
With companies such as Walmart seeing performance improvements after testing VR, and subsequently deploying 17,000 Oculus Go headsets in conjunction with the development of a curriculum of more than 50 training modules with Strivr, Oculus stated in its blog post that it is “excited to help support more of these types of applications and further accelerate VR’s entry to entirely new industries.”
Oculus stated that they will be announcing additional partnerships and details closer to launch in the fall. Businesses and developers interested in piloting the new program should visit the Oculus for Business website for more information.
Video credit: Oculus/YouTube
About the author
Sam Sprigg
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.
