It's time to take stock of XR's news of the week again, what are the big things happening in the field this week?
International
Apples
It's time to take stock of the week's Apple news.
The Vision Pro is indeed one of the most important new products in the industry in recent times, and it has the most news about it. It is conservatively estimated that such overwhelming news will probably continue until after the official delivery on February 2.
Last Friday, Vision Pro opened pre-orders, ** from 3499 US dollars (about 25179 yuan.)$3). Although it is now only sold to the United States, the almighty scalper and ** still give domestic users the opportunity to own it.
According to Times Weekly, a proxy photographer said that Vision Pro has been hyped up to 1About 10,000 US dollars, the domestic ** will only be higher, and it is expected to be speculated to 80,000 100,000 yuan.
With such a "sky-high price", people have to wonder, will anyone really buy it? Not to mention the high price and low security, even the relatively official Jingdong International, ** also has 38,999 yuan. It's been a week since the pre-order opened, and the author flipped through the stores on the e-commerce platform that listed the Vision Pro link, and basically the sales were in the single digits.
The stock was sold out 18 minutes after the order was opened", which looks more like a carnival for Apple enthusiasts and rich people only. According to the analysis of well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, 48 hours after the reservation opened, the delivery time of Vision Pro will not change. This suggests that demand in the market may decrease rapidly after core fans and heavy users place orders. User demand is not sustainable, and Vision Pro is still a very niche product.
In addition, there is a growing body of news that the Vision Pro may really not be very friendly to the average consumer. The first is the cost of repairs. The replacement cost of the front cover glass alone for the Vision Pro is US$799 (about 5,747 yuan), and if it is damaged for some reason and the entire device must be replaced, it will cost US$2,399 (nearly 17,000 yuan).
According to Apple's official statement, buying Apple's extended warranty service (Applecare+) may make the repair cost less, and the damaged warranty or any other type of repair will cost $299 (about 2146 yuan), in addition to the extended warranty fee of $25 (about 179 yuan) per month, which is not cheap enough to go.
The other point is the issue of application. According to Bloomberg's speculation, 99% of the apps in Vision Pro are iPad versions, not new software designed for VisionOS, the headset operating system. Although Apple said that it is to make it easier for Apple users to use and familiarize, copying iOS and macOS leaves users with a lot less surprise.
In addition, Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify have also said that they will not develop native apps for Vision Pro, and the experience of watching ** has been discounted. It's worth mentioning that the co-CEO of Netflix said in an interview this week to "see how Vision Pro develops." Although it is not ruled out that Netflix will land on the Apple Vision platform in the future, at the moment, Netflix is not sure whether it is worth developing a new program for the new platform, and it does not know if it will generate revenue.
Even so, the number of pre-orders sold for the Vision Pro exceeded expectations. According to statistics, Apple sold 160,000 to 180,000 units of the Vision Pro in the first three days of pre-ordering, which is at least 40% of the 400,000 units that Apple plans to sell in the first year. And Apple has recently followed the popularity of Vision Pro, the company ***122% to 193$89, the market capitalization once again exceeded $3 trillion.
Recently, an investment analyst firm raised its 2024 Vision Pro sales forecast**, expecting Apple to ship and sell about 600,000 Vision Pro units in 2024 (previously, the agency** was 460,000 units**). Now that the first pre-orders for this device have been shipped, Apple may be working with partners to get the Vision Pro delivered on February 2.
With the arrival of Vision Pro, there are various speculations that accompany it. Some foreign institutions believe that Vision Pro is the beginning of Apple's artificial intelligence project, and Apple may establish an independent artificial intelligence app store in the future; There has also been speculation that Apple's next product after the launch of the Vision Pro could be the "Apple Ring". But these are just speculations. Whether Vision Pro can open a new era depends on how it develops after that.
meta
Previously, the competition between Meta and Apple has always been "on the surface". Zuckerberg has said that he is not worried about the impact of Vision Pro on the Quest series, and recently, the vice president of Meta Metaverse also said that Vision Pro will generate public interest in MR headsets, but people are more likely to buy Meta Quest headsets because they are more affordable.
Now, it seems that Meta will soon be able to make users explore the **space**. A Twitter user who exclusively follows Vision Pro news reported that some **strings** were found in the iOS version of the Meta Quest app that **pointed to upcoming space support**. Users can upload the space stored on their iPhone to Meta's cloud server and then on Quest.
Space** is currently only supported by Apple's Vision Pro and iPhone 15 Pro and above, and it is unknown when and how Meta will implement this feature in the future.
Recently, Zuckerberg revealed his company's plans in a ** on Instagram and elaborated on his vision for the future. Meta will move forward with general intelligence (AGI) and make it open source, and will also increase its investment in artificial intelligence. But at the same time, Zuckerberg vehemently denied the claim that "Meta's AI focus is on moving away from AR VR." "We will continue to focus on Reality Labs and the metaverse," it said. ”
In fact, Meta currently spends more than $15 billion a year on Reality Labs, and that number could rise in 2024.
Sony
Meta was just mentioned, and there's another statistic worth noting this week related to Meta and Sony. Recently, according to the sales data of Quest 2, Quest 3 and PSVR 2 on Amazon in the United States, the Quest series headset performed quite well in this holiday season, while on the contrary, the performance of PSVR 2 was very unsatisfactory, judging from the data during the holiday, for every 1 PSVR 2 sold, the sales of Quest headsets exceeded 30 units.
For the PSVR 2, this number is pretty low, especially considering that the holidays tend to be the best time to sell VR headsets. During this holiday season, it is less than 1 to 3 of the Quest series of device sales on Amazon in the United States.
Another piece of news is also enough to cause concern. Rec Room, a well-known VR social app, recently said that there are "no plans at this time" to port PSVR 2. According to the company, they are actually "happy" to port it, but "haven't found a way to make it happen" and the economic implications.
In fact, REC Room is available on most platforms, including PS5 and the original PSVR, but there has never been a PSVR 2 version. You know, Rec Room has more than 3 million monthly active VR users in 2022, but they don't think it's a reasonable cost to buy the headset. Additionally, while there have been several major PSVR 2 games released recently, such as Resident Evil 4 and Five Nights at Freddy's House: SOS 2, most VR developers are still prioritizing Quest and PC VR.
This isn't good news for PSVR 2, and it's not the first company to struggle with porting PSVR2 apps. Earlier, there were developers who collectively complained that developing a ported game for PSVR 2 was too complicated and hindered their development plans.
The content ecosystem is crucial for devices, and while PSVR 2 is backed by Sony and already has a lot of great games, developers will definitely prefer a platform that is easier to develop. In this regard, Sony really needs to go one step further.
Applications
This week, there are two more interesting news worth sharing. Disney recently unveiled the world's first omnidirectional virtual reality treadmill floor, Holotile Sliding Floor Technology. This technology allows people to move around the virtual world without barriers, and allows multiple people to experience it at the same time.
It's interesting. This technology will break the limitations of physical space and bring a more immersive virtual experience to more people.
In addition, there is a new game that has recently exploded into popularity, called "Phantom Beast Palu". It's an all-new multiplayer** game where players collect mysterious "Palu" in a vast virtual world, and then let these creatures perform tasks such as fighting, building, farming, and crafting. Now, some players have been able to experience the game in VR through Praydog's UEVR mod for PC.
Although it can be played in VR, it is not a VR native game after all, and many experiences are still lacking, and you can't interact with objects in VR, but the VR version that includes 6DOF head movement, full stereoscopic 3D and other functions is still very eye-catching.
Domestic
There hasn't been much big news in the domestic XR field lately. Previously, during the launch of CES 2024, many domestic manufacturers released new products, and VRAR Planet reported on this, you can read "CES 2024 In-depth Interpretation: AR Ushered in a Turnaround, MR Headset Track Rises", "Quan Zhilong Appears to Cause Turmoil!" The number of exhibitors at this year's CES 2024 has reached 130,000, and a large number of new XR products have been unveiled, involving multiple fields" and other articles for more information.
At present, [VRAR Planet]** is also pushing relevant interview content one after another, welcome everyone to continue to pay attention.
Recently, the 2024 ROKID AR Ecological Conference and the final of the 2nd AR Application Development Competition with the theme of "'Yuan' Enlightens the Future, Vientiane 'New' Life" was successfully held in Shaoquan Lake Science and Technology Innovation Center, Hefei Xinzhan High-tech Zone. This ecological conference provides a platform for developers to showcase AR technology, and also allows the audience to see more development ideas and thinking.
At the same time, the "Hefei Metaverse Industry Development Plan" was officially released at the conference, and it is planned that by 2028, Hefei will build a metaverse industrial cluster with national influence.
The emergence of Vision Pro has brought new hope to the XR field, and among them, AR, which has been "recognized" by Apple, has ushered in a strong opportunity for development. Now, everyone is accumulating strength, and maybe soon, we will see more new products being born in the industry.
Next week, we will also bring you a week of inventory of the XR industry at this time, so stay tuned.
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