Is this another round of mobile phone manufacturers following suit in grabbing a spot in the VR market?

Last night, Honor released the V series' first flagship phone, the V8, in Beijing. The 2K screen full network version is also equipped with Honor VR.

Obviously, VR has become a hot word at mobile phone manufacturers’ press conferences. Samsung, Sony, HTC, Huawei, Xiaomi, LeTV, Lenovo, ZTE, and all conceivable mobile phone manufacturers are following the VR market.

Last year, VR was classified as black technology; this year, if you don’t mention “black technology”, you’d be embarrassed to call yourself a mobile phone manufacturer, and if you don’t mention VR, your mobile phone conference will be incomplete. In this regard, experts and some mobile phone manufacturers believe that VR is still in its very early stages, whether it is hardware form or software architecture, content platform, profit model, etc., they are all in the early stages of exploration; now more people are following the “me too” strategy, especially some small manufacturers.

Mobile phone manufacturers are positioning themselves in the VR market

Last year, VR was only available to a handful of manufacturers. This year, a wide variety of VR products have emerged. According to a survey by third-party agency Strategy Analytics, the global VR headset market will reach $895 million in 2016, and VR headset shipments will reach 12.8 million units, with low-end devices based on smartphones dominating.

Therefore, mobile phone manufacturers have positioned themselves in the VR market and launched VR devices based on smartphones.

Samsung began selling its Gear VR product in November 2015. The product needs to be used with a compatible Galaxy phone. According to relevant media reports, Samsung shipped 250,000 Gear VR devices last year. When Zuckerberg was promoting Samsung Gear VR at MWC this year, he said that millions of people will be able to get Gear VR this year.

In addition to Samsung, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to be keen on launching VR products. At this year's CES, Lenovo and Google jointly launched Project Tango smart mobile devices. This is a product optimized by Lenovo, Google and Qualcomm. It can enable mobile phones to obtain the same perspective as humans, overlay digital information and objects on the real world, and achieve the integration of virtual and reality.

Huawei put an Easter egg at the P9 launch conference: it released Huawei's first generation VR device. However, Huawei did not reveal much information, and the release date and price were not announced. In addition to 20ms ultra-low latency, 0-700 degrees myopia, support for 360-degree vision and sound field synchronization, it also pioneered a call function to achieve one-click switching between virtual and reality.

In addition, Xiaomi, LeTV and ZTE have also entered the VR field. Xiaomi established a VR team at the end of last year and then set up the Xiaomi Exploration Lab, which involves artificial intelligence and VR fields. The lab is led by Huang Jiangji and Tang Mu. LeTV released its first VR product, LeTV Cool1, in December last year, which can be adapted to Le1 and Le1Pro. ZTE also said that it will release its first VR product at the same time as the release of AXON next month.

On the one hand, mobile phone manufacturers are keen to launch VR products as soon as possible, but on the other hand, mobile phone manufacturers also realize that VR is still in the exploratory stage, and some basic experiences cannot even be guaranteed, such as screen resolution. Therefore, some people believe that mobile phone manufacturers are more of a follower or a gimmick in getting involved in VR.

Is it following the trend or strategic layout?

"Personally, I feel that it is still mainly following the trend, with a 'me too' strategy. VR is still in its very early stages, whether it is hardware form or software architecture, content platform, profit model, etc., they are all in the early stages of exploration." Sui Qian, director of wireless smartphone strategic analysis at Strategy Analytic, told NetEase Technology.

In terms of hardware form, mobile phone manufacturers prefer to use it in combination with smartphones. However, the resolution of current smartphones is basically 1080P, and a small number of them are 2K screens. But for VR, resolutions below 2K are not enough. Meizu CEO Li Nan said that under VR eyepieces, the resolution will be reduced to 1/6 to 1/8 of the original. Therefore, VR effects without 2K or 4K resolutions are always problematic. Currently, the 1080P screen of mobile phones is sufficient in non-VR scenarios. If the resolution is higher, the battery life will be problematic.

In this regard, Huawei's Yu Chengdong believes that "VR requires a higher resolution. 2K for each eye is not enough, 4K or 8K for each eye is needed." ZTE's vice president and executive vice president of China Terminal Yu Yifang believes that if mobile phone manufacturers cannot make 2K screens, it is not realistic to talk about VR; he believes that this is more of an industry hype. Meizu's Li Nan told NetEase Technology, "You can tell whether it is strategic by looking at the investment. Dual 4K or dual 2K split machines require tens of millions of R&D investment. This investment shows great determination, otherwise it is more of a gimmick."

According to NetEase Technology, Huawei's investment in VR started very early, mainly in the Shanghai Research Institute. In addition to VR hardware, Huawei pays more attention to the demand for future bandwidth brought by VR. At this year's Huawei Analyst Conference, Xu Wenwei, Huawei's executive director and president of strategic marketing, mentioned VR as the first keyword. He believes that VR needs ubiquitous ultra-broadband, zero-wait, and ultimate experience network support to achieve a perfect virtual reality experience.

"In the future, there will be thousands of companies engaged in VR, but only a few companies engaged in network transmission. This is an opportunity for all industries, and we will solve the challenges," said Xu Wenwei.

In terms of VR investment, Wei Wei, head of LeTV's VR business center, revealed in an interview with NetEase Technology that LeTV Cloud has established a VR business unit that focuses on VR cloud technology innovation, R&D, industrial chain expansion, commercial cooperation and other businesses.

Moreover, for LeTV, VR plays a pivotal role in the company. "At LeTV's new product launch conference on April 20 this year, VR is one of the four major products, on par with cars, TVs, and mobile phones, so its importance can be imagined," Wei Wei said. At the launch conference, LeTV revealed that it will successively launch mobile phone embedded terminals and all-in-one products.

Sui Qian believes that "large manufacturers are mainly considering strategic layout, but also competitive factors. Small companies are mostly following the trend and doing short-term operations for the purpose of profit. But now it seems that the short-term profit prospects are not clear."

Therefore, it is an inevitable trend of technological development for the entire industry to enter the VR field, but possessing core technologies and patents is the key, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve long-term development by following suit and imitating.

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.