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In October 2018, Yves Maitre, who has recently taken over as CEO of HTC, also admitted in an interview that HTC has stopped innovating on smartphone hardware:

Like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, all have done a great job in mobile phone hardware, but we haven’t, because we have invested all our resources in virtual reality (VR) field. I think HTC did the right thing at the wrong point in time and paid for it, and we are looking for recovery from it.

This is not the first time HTC executives have expressed their views on their virtual reality business. The difference is that most of what you have heard before is similar to the words “optimistic about the future of VR and VR will become the next-generation computing platform”, but they are unwilling to admit that they have made a mistake that many large companies will encounter:

Bringing a product that is too far ahead of the market doesn’t even leave you with another avenue.

HTC chose to shift its development focus to the field of virtual reality in 2014, which also happened to be the hottest stage of VR.

At that time, Facebook spent $ 2 billion to buy Oculus, a star company in VR. One year later, Samsung launched the Gear VR accessory that can be linked with its flagship mobile phone. By 2016,Sony also introduced PS VR glasses; and Google Cardboard, which sold 10 million copies at low prices.

This is only the action of large companies. Under this influence, many startups, investors and small equipment manufacturers have also poured into the field of VR, and they are likely to initiate a technological revolution in the consumer market.

To this day, virtual reality still hasn’t ushered in its “outbreak”, let alone how much attention it has attracted in the consumer market. The most obvious change is probably the addition of several VR experience areas in shopping malls and playgrounds.

Cardboard carton is probably one of Google ’s most successful “concept products”

The cold water has already poured over the market before it’s on fire.

The capital retreat in 2017 quickly cleaned up a group of VR startups that wanted to make quick money; Samsung’s Gear VR iteration for two years was gone; Google, which likes to do half of everything, also chose to close this year His own VR project “Daydream”.

Today, Google, Apple, and Microsoft have all focused on the AR field. It has some common features with VR, but the development goals are still fundamentally different.

At present, the only VR players in the entire VR market are Sony, Oculus, and HTC. Among them, Sony has announced the cumulative sales of PS VR at a CES conference a few days ago, which is 5 million units.

Considering that it has been in existence for more than three years, this is obviously not a figure to be boasted.

However, relying on hundreds of millions of PS4 console shipments and Sony ’s continuous investment in game content, PS VR is already the best performing product in the VR market.

Moreover, Oculus and HTC have never announced their cumulative sales of their VR devices.

According to IDC’s forecast, the device shipments of the entire VR / AR market in 2019 will be about 7.6 million units, which is a slight increase from 5.9 million units in 2018. Most of the growth will still occur in the commercial sector, and Non-individual consumers.

Considering that the global smartphones can now easily sell more than one billion units a year, and PCs, which are always regarded as “sunset industries”, can also be stable at sales of 200 million to 300 million a year. Not to mention that the VR industry is still in place, but at least it is far from being “popular”.

The reasons behind it are not difficult to understand. After all, high pricing, poor portability, limited use scenarios, and no “killer” content. These are the old problems that hinder the “out of the circle” of VR devices.

Just letting this bulky head-mounted device get rid of the external locator and wired connection, put it on and play, and achieve mass production, Oculus spent 4 years and invested $ 3 billion to achieve Implemented on Oculus Go 2018.

As for HTC’s first VR all-in-one HTC Vive Focus, it was almost launched at this time.

But this does not mean that they are VR devices that everyone wants. Oculus’s former CTO Carmack said in an interview earlier that the boxy shape of VR and AR headsets is still difficult to accept by consumers, let alone wear it out of the house.

Facing an uncertain future, these companies can only continue to put the words “VR is the future” on their lips, and then continue to invest in new technology to make these helmets similar to goggles or It is the thing of sunglasses.

But Just like most products that are also believed to be the next wave, no one knows when this future will land, and more often, they are more like a fantasy on paper , So that any investment seems to have fallen into a bottomless pit.

FacebookChief scientist Michael Abrash said last year that he didn’t know when he would launch a true “next-gen VR device.”

People can not worry about Oculus and PS VR, because they can also rely on Facebook and Sony’s other businesses to transfuse themselves without considering short-term returns, and continue to “trial and error” in the VR market.

Even if the general direction goes wrong, it ’s okay to change the strategy and cut off an entire department. It will not have a fatal impact on the company ’s life and death. This is determined by the ambition of the capital and size. .

The reality is that Facebook can spend money on resurrecting entertainment from well-known developers, making exclusive VR shooters for Oculus, and even buying studios that make Beat Saber games directly.

Sony, as a giant in the game industry, has the richest VR game library at present, although it is not brilliant in hardware.

In contrast, HTC ca n’t be so willful in the use of funds . After fading out of the smartphone market, VR is almost the only business that HTC can rely on. In addition, the performance decline is still difficult. It is difficult to imagine that HTC can allocate sufficient funds to software and content in addition to hardware development.

More importantly, HTC must first ensure that it can reach the moment when VR is popular.

The article is from the public account: love range of children (ID: ifanr) , author: Muse.