Apple Vision Pro released in China, "lukewarm"
However, the "cold reception" of Vision Pro did not dampen the enthusiasm of the XR market. On June 25, the domestic XR manufacturer DreamPlay officially launched its first spatial computing device, DreamPlay MR, in Singapore. The device is generally considered by industry insiders to be one of the most competitive competitors of Vision Pro.
In addition, in early June, there was news that PICO's new head display PICO 4S will be officially launched in the second half of this year;
foreign media The Information revealed that Meta will start developing a new high-end head display Quest Pro 2 in November this year;
other news showed that the founder of Oculus is developing a new VR head display...
The "high opening and low closing" of the National Bank Vision Pro has invisibly added more diverse market choices for XR consumers.
01
Vision Pro sales and reputation are not as good as expected
Since the US version of Vision Pro was released on February 2 this year, sales of this revolutionary product in the field of spatial computing have been declining.
Apple's 14-day unconditional return and exchange "trial period" for the product was even jokingly called the "lifelong enemy" of Vision Pro sales: on February 16 this year, after the 14-day period of Apple's initial sale expired, Vision Pro ushered in a wave of "returns."
At that time, in response to this phenomenon, Bloomberg said: "Data from retail stores suggest that (Vision Pro's) return rate may be between average and above average compared to other products, depending on the location. Smaller stores have one or two returns a day, and larger stores have up to eight or more returns a day."
Based on this, in April this year, Tianfeng International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed out that faced with a "seriously unexpected" drop in demand, Apple has lowered its forecast for Vision Pro shipments from 700,000 to 800,000 units when it was first released to 400,000 to 500,000 units, and even expected that Vision Pro shipments in 2025 may decline year-on-year.
At the same time, there are more and more criticisms of Vision Pro on the Internet. Reporters found that these "bad reviews" are mainly concentrated in three aspects: poor comfort, low cost performance and imperfect ecology. Among the comments of users who chose to return the product, "the device is too heavy", "single function" and "too few compatible videos and applications" have become the mainstream voices.
The "unpopularity" of Vision Pro is also directly reflected in its pricing in the unofficial trading market.
The reporter observed that when Vision Pro was released in early February, the price on the second-hand trading platform "Xianyu" was far higher than the original price, and the highest price even reached nearly 100,000 yuan; however, recently, the price of Vision Pro on this platform has generally been lower than the original price, and the lowest price can even reach less than 10,000 yuan.
As of press time, the lowest price for a brand new, sealed Vision Pro on Xianyu is 19,800 yuan.
In the Chinese market, the price of the Vision Pro sold in China is as high as 29,999 yuan, which is much higher than the price of 3,499 US dollars in North America. In addition, an industry insider told the reporter of China Electronics News: "The price and function positioning of Vision Pro destined it to be a niche product with enthusiasts and developers as the main user groups, and the groups it targets often will not wait until the Chinese version is sold before buying it, and they may not become the main buyers of this Chinese version again." It is not difficult to see that the industry is not very positive about the sale of Vision Pro sold in China.
02
Vision Pro opens up the industry's thinking
Although Vision Pro has been "cold" on the C-end, it cannot be denied that its advanced spatial computing concept and gorgeous technical core have brought revolutionary changes to the XR industry. In an industry research report issued by Essence Securities, the world's major VR manufacturers were ranked based on the core functions and performance of Vision Pro, which shows its status as an industry benchmark .
Talking about the spatial computing concept reflected in the design of Vision Pro, Li Jie, vice president of Pimax Technology, praised it highly: "The computing dimension upgrade brought by spatial computing is significant in improving the efficiency of the progress of human civilization."
He pointed out that the current industry mainly starts from two concepts when designing virtual reality interactive products: "One is the virtualization of reality, that is, inputting the real environment into the virtual space, and people interact in the virtual environment; the other is virtual reality, that is, allowing users to interact with virtual elements without leaving the basic framework of the real world, also known as 'augmented reality'."
From an industry perspective, Vision Pro is undoubtedly a landmark product of virtual reality. When experiencing Vision Pro in person, the reporter found that when using this headset, the real environment in front of the eyes is difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion, as if what is in front of the eyes is not a closed headset screen, but a pair of light-colored sunglasses; the semi-transparent application window faintly reveals the environmental background, harmoniously embedded in the real space.
Vision Pro official promotional diagram. The field of vision after wearing Vision Pro is similar to the picture
The reporter learned that Vision Pro uses the VST (video perspective) technology, which collects the external environment and displays it on a non-transparent screen. With the support of Vision Pro's successful cases, Li Jie is more convinced that "VST is the only choice to realize the virtualization of reality."
In his opinion, there are four reasons why MR headsets choose VST: first, to achieve perfect fusion of virtual and real, it is necessary to accurately manage each pixel in the field of vision, which only VST can do; second, VST supports the processing and enhancement of the real environment, and enhances the user's sense of immersion through noise reduction, background replacement and other means; third, VST can ensure that the secondary dissemination of content in the digital space is consistent with the user's vision; finally, VST technology is compatible with VR and AR modes, allowing users to independently choose the degree of integration of the real and virtual worlds, which is more in line with the concept of spatial computing.
In this regard, industry experts told reporters: "Compared with OST (optical perspective), another mainstream technology route that allows the real reality environment to be reflected through the screen into the human eye, although VST technology is relatively mature and has lower costs, it is still inferior in terms of experience." To break through the "innate defects" of VST technology in terms of experience, Vision Pro's answer is to "improve the quality of the screen": the binocular resolution of Vision Pro's display is as high as 23 million pixels, while the average resolution of mainstream products in the industry is only about 9 million pixels. As Li Jie said: "To achieve virtual reality, 'volume pixels' is the only way. "
"Roll up pixels", domestic manufacturers have done what they said. On April 16, Pimax Technology released its new Crystal Super VR headset, with a display pixel count of 29.5 million; on June 25, Dream Out released its latest headset product "Dream Out MR", with a total screen pixel count of 27 million.
03
A large number of new MR products are brewing
The headsets launched by Pimax and DreamHair are just the tip of the iceberg in the new XR headset product plan for 2024. After the initial release of Vision Pro in February this year, the industry has remained active, major manufacturers have made their plans, and news about new XR headsets has emerged in an endless stream.
Sony announced that it will launch its first XR headset this year, which is officially defined as an "immersive spatial content creation system." It is understood that the headset is aimed at professional 3D work scenarios, equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 processor and Sony's 1.3-inch Micro-OLED display, reaching a single-eye 4K resolution and 55 PPD.
Sony released its head-mounted display device concept map at CES2024
Samsung's MR headset, code-named "Project Moohan", developed in cooperation with Google and Qualcomm, is also expected to be available for sale before the end of this year. The reporter noted that at CES2024 held earlier, Samsung exhibited an OLEDoS (silicon-based OLED) screen for XR headsets, which is also the world's first OLEDoS display with an RGB sub-pixel structure. Industry insiders speculate that the screen may be used in Samsung's MR headset products. However, in March this year, the latest report released by market research firm Omdia showed that Samsung has decided to abandon the use of its own technology and switch to Sony's OLEDoS screen. It is reported that Samsung has placed an order with Sony, and the internal screen size is 1.3 inches. The MR headset has also begun mass production, with an estimated price of US$2,000 (approximately RMB 14,420).
Samsung exhibits the world's first OLEDoS display with RGB sub-pixel structure
Skyworth also released news about its latest mixed reality headset, MR PANCAKE 2. It is understood that the headset uses a Micro-OLED screen and the single-eye resolution reaches the 4K standard. Skyworth said that the headset will be available in the third quarter of 2024.
SKYWORTH MR PANCAKE 2 HEAD DISPLAY
In addition, a large number of XR headsets that are still under development have also released "rumors" recently: Pico's new headset PICO 4S will be officially unveiled in the second half of this year; Meta has laid out both high-end and low-end product lines. Its Quest 3 subordinate product "Quest 3S" has currently completed some application adaptations, and another new high-end headset Quest Pro 2 will begin development in November this year; Li Nan, former CMO of Meizu Technology and current founder of Nu Miao Technology, revealed that Huawei is developing its first headset product, which will use Huawei's self-developed chips and be equipped with Sony's 4K Micro-OLED screen, with an estimated price of 15,000 yuan; Asus's Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand is planning to develop a headset with "high-performance games" as the main usage scenario; Lenovo focuses on the fields of "productivity, learning and entertainment" and plans to launch new MR devices; the founder of Oculus will also invest in the development of new VR headsets...
Faced with fierce market competition, many head-mounted display products that have not yet been launched have made targeted layouts. Industry experts said that Chinese XR companies should start from three aspects to differentiate their brands in the fierce industry competition: first, pay attention to the characteristics of application scenarios and create customized products according to the needs of different scenarios such as film and television, education and training, and cultural tourism; second, optimize the supply chain system, focus on the research and development of key components, improve the adaptability of software and hardware, and improve product competitiveness; third, explore the product ecology, develop the linkage effect of MR with mobile phones, tablets, laptops, car head-up displays (HUD), etc., attract user attention, and thus increase the user stickiness of the product.
-END-
京公网安备 11010802033920号