The industry entered a period of silence.
As a new information technology, virtual reality will have a far-reaching impact on social life and various industries. Almost all international giants have participated in VR/AR investment: Facebook acquired Oculus, Samsung launched GearVR, Google led Magic Leap, Microsoft launched HoloLens, Sony released PS VR, HTC pushed HTC Vive, and so on.
In China, VR is also favored by capital and market. According to the White Paper 20 17 on Investment and Financing of VR Industry in China issued by the Investment Promotion Committee of Virtual Reality Industry Alliance under the guidance of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the total scale of the virtual reality market in China in 20 16 is 6.82 billion yuan, and hardware manufacturers are the key industries for the financing development of VR industry in China at this stage.
GfK market research group (GfK) found through online market monitoring data that in 20 16, the average monthly sales volume of VR hardware in China retail market reached 382,000 units, and the average price of a single unit was 137 yuan. There are as many as 480 brands related to the market, but most of them are sub-products of glasses cases.
The reporter found in a digital mall located in Chaowai Street in Beijing that the price of VR hardware ranges from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan, and the price of most VR boxes is around 100 yuan or even lower, and some of them are also used as promotional gifts. Merchants told reporters that the cost price of many VR boxes is around 10 yuan. The "brand" VR boxes of some startups are also ordered and branded directly from these manufacturers.
Can these "VR boxes" represent VR technology? In fact, the structure of the "VR box" is very simple, with two lenses, a plastic box and a comfortable strap. Some are also equipped with adjustable myopia lenses. Even if it is a complete product, you can watch VR content directly by inserting it into your mobile phone. In this VR box, there is no operation, and the lens is only used to enlarge the display screen of the mobile phone in the box, so that the image occupies the whole field of vision of people. This is actually a kind of "visual deception".
Wu Xiaoming, one of the authors of VR Times, told the reporter that "20 17 is a silent period for VR after the first year, and the industry began to' squeeze the bubble'. Those companies with less profits and lack of innovative products will gradually be eliminated, and the sales of cottage products will gradually decrease. "
Skyworth cool VR &；; Li Jing, general manager of AR Division, said that the 20 17 industry is gradually returning to rationality. "Compared with a year ago, the decrease in capital investment, the decrease in the popularity of ordinary users and the bottleneck period of core technologies have undoubtedly brought great challenges to practitioners in this industry and prompted people in this industry to be more rational." Li Jing said, "People began to calm down and think about the development direction of the industry. Of course, it is more important to think about how to survive under unfavorable circumstances. "
The market faces many problems.
VR mobile headset has obvious advantages such as portability and price, so it has become the first product in VR retail field. Most mobile phone VR boxes are regarded as cheap early adopters by users. In the VR hardware product series, in addition to boxes, there are external VRs represented by giants such as HTC, and VR all-in-one machines that are more optimistic in the industry.
Some insiders said that in a sense, the VR all-in-one machine is a truly qualified VR device. VR all-in-one machine refers to a VR head display with an independent processor, which is equipped with a processor, storage space, screen, gyroscope and display screen. Although the VR all-in-one machine is not as powerful as external VR heads such as HTC Vive in display effect and function, it is not bound by wires and has a higher degree of freedom, which was once favored by the industry.
However, the price of this kind of equipment makes most ordinary consumers flinch. The reporter found that the price of Sony's VR product PlayStation VR is around 2800 yuan, and the price of domestic storm mirror integrated machine is 2499 yuan. External VR is more expensive, equivalent to a mid-to high-end computer or even higher.
Li Jing said that at this stage, both external VR and VR all-in-one machines are facing the problem of high product cost. First, the price of components is too high, and second, because the consumer market has not formed a scale, it is difficult to reduce manufacturing costs through scale effect.
The lack of high-quality content is also a problem facing the current VR industry. The reporter saw in a VR experience hall that most of the experience projects are adventure games. An anonymous developer told reporters, "Many companies can only make rough full-action videos and very basic survival games. They are eager to make a profit and rarely consider the details and prospects of VR development. "
In early February, it was revealed that Facebook would close 200 offline experience stores in Oculus Rift, almost reducing the number of 500 experience stores opened in the United States by 40%. Some domestic startups have also begun to adjust in the "cold winter", some independently produce VR hardware devices, and some focus on developing VR content.
Hou Yunxian, a senior analyst of CCID Consulting, told reporters that the VR industry in China started not much worse than that in foreign countries. The biggest problem in China is that there are too few technologies and too few refined applications or contents. The whole industry is a bit impetuous in the capital boom, and everyone is chasing areas with higher realized value, or copying and pasting them into some applications. "More than half of the patented technologies in the VR industry are in the United States, and the domestic share is very small." Hou Yunxian said.
The future explodes from the application.
Although the VR industry is currently struggling to climb, its prospects are still optimistic by the industry. Based on the research on the overall market, product maturity and key technologies, CCID Consulting is optimistic about the development of virtual reality. It is predicted that by 2020, the market will enter a relatively mature stage, with a scale of 9182 million yuan and a compound annual growth rate of 1.25%.
According to industry insiders, there is no bubble in VR itself, but there is a bubble in the circle that uses VR for business investment. Hot is the maker of bubbles. In the continuous development of VR industry, there will be more and more forms and directions, which will be applied to more industries and closer to people's lives in the future.
As a frontier field of science and technology, VR has also been highly valued by all countries in the world. Developed countries such as the United States and South Korea all support the development of virtual reality industry from the government level. China has clearly proposed to encourage and support the development of the virtual reality industry in national policies such as the 13th Five-Year National Science and Technology Innovation Plan, the 13th Five-Year National Informatization Plan, the Three-Year Action Plan for Artificial Intelligence in internet plus, and the Special Action for the Innovation and Development of Intelligent Hardware Industry (20 16-20 18).
As the mainstream devices in China VR market are still mainly mobile VR glasses, the development of VR video content is far more than VR game content. At present, there are about 2700 videos and 800 games on the VR platform. At the same time, the number of VR offline experience halls in China has increased rapidly in recent years, reaching more than 2,000 nationwide.
With the promotion and support of international activities, VR live broadcast will also be the main explosion point in the next two years. In addition, professional VR applications are gradually maturing in technology, and VR applications such as education, design, tourism and medical care will make breakthroughs.
"We are very happy to see that the bubble in the whole industry has gradually decreased this year. The application of VR in various industries has begun to take root, and the order volume is also increasing, which means that the real VR market demand is picking up. We believe that this trend will be normalized in the future and the industry will gradually enter the track of healthy development. " Li Jing said.
She believes that in the case of limited product cost and content, it is difficult to break out in the To C market in a short time. At the initial stage of the preparation of Cool VR All-in-One Machine, To B was the mainstay, providing VR All-in-One Machine equipment and a set of demonstrations and solutions. At present, the B-end industry market is still a big direction, and the C-end market will gradually spread out.
Hou Yunxian also believes that the development of an industry is not driven by heat. The heat is only temporary, and the demand can really lead the future development trend of VR. "I think it must be content (application) that detonates the future, and application is the biggest driving force, especially enterprise-level applications."
Many experts said that in the process of continuous development of domestic VR, it is inseparable from the support of the government and the regulation of the industry itself. I hope the government will build more platforms and opportunities for the VR industry and strengthen the cultivation of talents. The VR industry also needs to upgrade itself and create an environment more conducive to software development adaptation and product popularization. ?