ASUS Rumored to Turn AR & VR Departments into Independent Startup

ASUS is gearing up to move its augmented and virtual reality departments into an independent startup named Glamorfy, according to a recent report from tech news site Fudzilla.

Glamorfy has existed since 2015 as an arm of ASUS, and before now, the separate AR and VR departments had been producing mixed reality technology for the company, most notably a 3D virtual makeup design studio also called Glamorfy. In addition, the company has been working for the past year on their version of a Microsoft Mixed Reality headset, which was one of the only expected headsets not to show up as CES 2017 this year.

A demo of ASUS's Glamorfy Smart Kiosk in a beauty store.

Glamorfy is reportedly planning to seek outside investments, a sign, according to Fudzilla, that it will eventually split to become a standalone company. Of course, these are all rumors. A Focus Taiwan news article even purports ASUS denies the plans to establish an independent AR company:

Asus pointed out on Monday in a statement responding to the report that the software team cited accounts for only a small percentage of the Asus AR and virtual reality operations workforce.

While not an admission, this statement isn't necessarily a "no," either. It seems the best approach is to keep an eye on ASUS in 2017, as well as the mixed reality technology it produces.