Samsung mocked Daydream when it was launched. Google actually has other intentions for not playing by the rules.

2016 is truly worthy of being called the first year of VR. From the launch of HTC VIVE and Oculus Rift consumer versions at the beginning of the year, to Google's announcement of the Android VR platform Daydream, to the official release of Sony PS VR, to Microsoft's official release of Win10 VR, the VR field continues to ferment.

After HTC, Facebook and Sony officially joined forces in the high-end VR headset market, Google's Daydream View was shipped as scheduled last month, which also indicated that the trend of the mobile VR field has officially formed, at least we think so. Before this, in the mobile VR field, Oculus and Samsung Gear VR dominated the market and set a benchmark in terms of user experience and content. After Daydream was launched, the industry generally believed that this was an important milestone in the mobileization of VR. However, after being released for some time, Daydream's performance has not been satisfactory.

Daydream is expected to be a "mobile VR icebreaker"

Daydream, the star product highlighted at this year's Google I/O conference, is not just an APP or hardware product, but means that Android will support VR functions from the bottom up and will provide a complete set of standards for all Android hardware manufacturers.

As we all know, previous smartphones (including Android and iOS) have not been optimized for VR at the underlying code level, and the hardware relies on crude gyroscopes and motion sensors. These are far from enough for VR, which has extremely strict requirements for frame rate, resolution, and motion tracking.

The reason why Gear VR has been able to dominate the mobile VR market for a long time is that the Galaxy series of mobile phones it supports were designed with VR experience in mind from the beginning, and were personally guided by John Carmack, the chief technology officer of the Oculus Rift team, not to mention the motion capture sensors contained in the Gear VR body. Therefore, it is normal that Gear VR beats half-baked mobile VR in seconds.

Therefore, Google, which can really compete with the three major players on the technical level, has almost become the last straw for the success of the mobile VR revolution. This is also why Daydream was embraced by all mobile phone manufacturers who have high hopes for VR when it was first announced.

Poor sales, but not as good as Samsung

After the Google I/O conference in May, some netizens in the VR forum shouted that Daydream is "the first VR for young people", "worthy of every Android phone user", and "if you don't buy it, you are not a human being." They also published an article titled "Is Google's Daydream necessary under the shadow of Oculus Rift?", expressing their optimism about the new standards set by Google in the mobile VR industry.

However, since Daydream View was launched on the market, its sales have not skyrocketed as people expected. On the contrary, it has been a bit bleak.

Daydream View is priced at $79 (about 545 yuan at today's exchange rate) and is available in five countries including the United States, Canada, and Germany. It is sold through Google Stores and e-commerce platforms such as Best Buy and Verizon. From the data, the new version of Gear VR ranks first in the VR helmet section of Best Buy, and the old version of Gear VR ranks fourth. Daydream is not very ideal, ranking only sixth, and the "number of ratings" is only two, far less than Samsung's 3,200.

It is also worth mentioning that due to the reputation damage and sales decline caused by the Samsung "explosion incident", Samsung has taken measures such as bundling Gear VR headsets with products. This has further reduced the price of Gear VR in the market, from the original price of US$99 to less than RMB 200 in China, which is very competitive.

Daydream is still immature

The main culprit for Daydream's lukewarm performance is probably the platform's initial pains.

When asked about Daydream by the media, Oculus Vice President Nate Mitchell said: "We can focus on creating ultra-high-quality VR experiences only for Gear VR because we don't need to support so many mobile phones." He believes that Google's Daydream will not pose a threat to the position of Gear VR.

In fact, Daydream View currently supports far fewer phones than Gear VR. Gear VR supports almost all dual flagship models after Galaxy S6 (except Note7, you know why), while Daydream platform currently supports only two of its own, Pixel and Pixel XL, plus one "foreign aid" Huawei Mate 9 Pro. The narrow range of supported models severely limits Daydream's target audience.

But despite this, the experience of the Daydream platform is still not excellent. According to user feedback, Daydream often has slow loading, button failures, and even pseudo-deaths. The phone also suffers from severe battery drain, and can basically only last for the next movie.

Daydream has not met expectations in terms of the number of software. Currently, there are only about 30 softwares in the store. Google said that it will reach 50 by the end of the year. However, Gear VR and HTC VIVE have already exceeded 200 softwares. What's more embarrassing is that even among these 30 softwares, most of them are "Gun Jack 2" and "Fantastic Beasts" which is a combination of film and game. With a poor content lineup, Daydream is not attractive enough to users even with its excellent wearing comfort, so it is not surprising that its sales are average.

Google doesn't care about Daydream View sales

Daydream's software lineup is not impressive, its hardware uses fabric materials to save as much as possible, and the entry program has obviously not been finely polished; it only supports Android 7.0 at the system level, which excludes 99.7% of Android phones; Google's requirements for hardware support standards are obviously not low, and the cooperation with phones that originally supported Daydream ultimately failed due to non-compliance; Google did not even continue to use its long-standing killer weapon - "open source". Daydream is a closed platform built on Android.

There is no doubt that these practices of Google are very "un-Google", and industry insiders have expressed that they "don't understand".

However, it may be easier to understand if we consider it from the perspective of Google's Android system. It is believed that Google's Daydream platform is similar to Microsoft's Xbox Play Anywhere plan for Google. Microsoft opens all Xbox platform games to Windows 10 in order to increase the installation volume of Windows 10. Similarly, Google's Daydream is responsible for solving the problem of Android 7.0's popularity while promoting the development of mobile VR.

In this regard, Clay Bavor, a senior executive of Google's application product management, said not long ago that this helmet is just a "paradigm" and only hopes to provide a reference for hardware manufacturers preparing to enter Daydream. In other words, Google has no intention of competing with other manufacturers in hardware, but only hopes to drive a wave of Android 7.0 upgrades. After all, if manufacturers want to support the Daydream platform, they need to pre-install the 7.0 system on their phones. Since the system in Android 7.0 is more closed, it cuts off the profit chain between many mobile phone manufacturers and software manufacturers. This is the biggest resistance to the popularization of Android 7.0.

No one doubts that the Daydream platform will set new standards for mobile VR, and it may be better news that mobile hardware manufacturers pre-install Android 7.0, which has a higher security factor and better experience, when their phones leave the factory. Although it is not recommended to buy Daydream View at present, with the formulation of new standards, the spring of mobile VR will come faster, and I believe this is the true meaning of Daydream.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.