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| An attendee uses the Oculus Rift headset at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. |
Facebook Inc. is taking another wound at transforming its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset into a mass-advertise wonder. Code-named "Pacific," the gadget looks like a more minimized form of the Rift and will be lighter than Samsung's Gear VR headset, one of the general population said.
Facebook Inc. is taking another cut at transforming its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset into a mass-showcase wonder. Not long from now, the organization intends to uncover a less expensive, remote gadget that the organization is wagering will advance VR the way Apple did the cell phone.
As of now VR equipment comes in two flavors: modest headsets that transform cell phones into virtual reality players (like Samsung's $130 Gear VR) and top of the line gaming rigs (like Facebook's $400 Oculus Rift) that connect to $1,000-in addition to desktop PCs. Facebook's new headset is intended to cross over any barrier — a gadget that will offer for as meager as $200 and need not be fastened to a PC or telephone, as indicated by individuals acquainted with its improvement. It will send one year from now and speak to a totally new classification.
Like current Oculus items, the new headset will be designed for immersive gaming, watching the video and long range interpersonal communication, said the general population who requested that not be named to examine a private issue. Code-named "Pacific," the gadget looks like a more conservative rendition of the Rift and will be lighter than Samsung's Gear VR headset, one of the general population said. The gadget's outline and elements aren't concluded could in any case change, however, the thought is that somebody will have the capacity to haul the headset out of their pack and watch motion pictures on a flight only the way you would now be able to with a telephone or tablet.
At Oculus' engineer meeting a year ago, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg portrayed a "sweet spot" for a gadget that sits between the Gear VR and Rift. "This is the sort of thing that we accept will exist," he said. In a messaged proclamation Oculus representative Alan Cooper stated: "We don't have an item to disclose as of now, in any case, we can affirm we're making a few critical innovation interests in the independent VR class."
Oculus built its first prototype in 2010, back when it was still a Kickstarter-funded startup. In 2014, Facebook acquired the company for about $2 billion. Today the global market for VR headsets remains tiny. In the first quarter, hardware makers shipped 2.3 million of the devices, according to IDC, compared with 347 million smartphones. Buggy hardware, pricey headsets, and insufficient content are all holding back mass adoption.
That’s starting to change as the second generation of devices starts to roll out. Last year, Sony Corp. debuted the PlayStation VR, a $500 headset that has sold close to a million units and taps the company’s gaming and entertainment ecosystem. Meanwhile, HTC Corp. and Lenovo Group, which both use Google’s Daydream OS, are working on their own standalone headsets and expect to release them this year. Ditto for Samsung Electronics Co., which uses Oculus technology.
Also gearing up is Apple Inc., which is betting on augmented reality technology that lays maps, text messages and more over the real world — a bet that most consumers won’t want to be isolated inside VR headsets.
Right now Samsung leads the pack with about 22 per cent of the global VR market, according to IDC. Facebook’s Oculus Rift is in fourth place, behind Sony and HTC, with about 5 percent of the market, or less than 100,000 units sold, IDC says. To goose sales, the company in July dropped the price of its headset for the second time this year.
If Facebook can get the new hardware right, it has some key advantages, including a vibrant ecosystem of downloadable VR games and apps, plus enthusiastic developers who gather in their thousands each year at the company’s Oculus Connect conference.
The new headset will have a similar interface to Samsung’s VR Gear and can be controlled by a wireless remote. Facebook has said it’s also working on a prototype device code-named Santa Cruz that’s basically a wireless Rift, with the full power of the original device sans PC.
Oculus has plans to enlist China’s Xiaomi and its network of contract manufacturers to produce the new headset for global distribution, people familiar with the arrangement said. The device will feature Oculus branding around the world, except a custom version for China, will feature Xiaomi branding and run some Xiaomi software applications, the people said. Hugo Barra, recently put in charge of Oculus’s VR products, was previously a Xiaomi executive. Xiaomi declined to comment.
Facebook plans to power the product with a Snapdragon mobile chip from Qualcomm, people familiar with the matter said. Qualcomm declined to comment. The device’s gaming power is superior to that of the Gear VR, but unlike the powerful Rift device, will not include positional tracking technology. This means that the device won’t be able to tell where its user is spatial, which is useful for tasks like virtual rock climbing. A future version of the product will have that technology, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The company plans to begin briefing content makers, such as video game designers, on the device by October so that the product’s application store could launch with compatible games, one of the people said. The downloads store will be re-written and accessible from the virtual reality interface itself, this person said.
Facebook’s new VR handset will ship in 2018 so will miss this year’s holiday shopping season, giving rivals a chance to hit the market first. But the $200 price and Oculus’s reputation among developers could give the gadget an edge with consumers.
