In October 2021, high-end XR headset maker Varjo unveiled a $1,990 PC VR: Aero for B- and C-side VR players, a stripped-down version of its latest headset, the XR-3, offering industry-leading fidelity and advanced features at a relatively inexpensive price, making the company's products more appealing to small businesses and relatively wealthy VR enthusiasts.
The Aero headset was the company's first headset designed to appeal to individual customers rather than large organizations, and it seems that Varjo is satisfied with its acceptance enough for now that it may not be the last, and Varjo intends to make Aero a series of headsets for high-end enthusiasts.
It is reported that Aero is characterized by a lower price than the more high-end VR products XR-3 and VR-3 previously released by Varjo, canceling the mechanical zoom design of two different screens, but using a smaller mini LED, with a single eye resolution of up to 2880x2720, suitable for VR simulation scenes with high screen definition requirements.
Recently, Urho Konttori, Varjo's chief technology officer, said that Aero is out of stock and is expected to take up to 3-4 months to deliver. Varjo did not mention the reason for the out-of-stock Aero, which may also be related to factors such as supply chain and production.
As for what will happen in the future, Konttori said Aero will likely become a series headset for high-end enthusiasts, rather than a one-off. While the company still appears to be primarily focused on serving the high-end enterprise segment, the move means the company also hopes to attract high-end enthusiasts who are targeting more headsets in the future.
This could coincide in an interesting way with some of the software built in-house, especially its XR cloud streaming technology. While initially aimed at enterprise customers, the company confirmed that the technology supports any OpenVR/SteamVR application without modifications and plans to extend the feature to other headsets in the future, saying that multi-headset support is primarily designed to make XR more scalable in large organizations.