{"id":361298,"date":"2017-10-12T06:41:48","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T06:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=361298"},"modified":"2017-10-12T06:41:48","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T06:41:48","slug":"we-want-a-billion-people-in-vr-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/we-want-a-billion-people-in-vr-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"We want a billion people in VR – Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
In its continued effort to take virtual reality mainstream, Facebook has announced Oculus Go – a standalone headset that will be released in 2018.<\/p>\n
Mark Zuckerberg said the device, priced at $199, would be the \u201cmost accessible VR experience ever\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sales of the company\u2019s VR hardware have been slow since launching the first Oculus Rift headset in March 2016.<\/p>\n
“If VR doesn’t go mass market at this price point, I think we can conclude that it never will,\u201d said John Delaney, an analyst with IDC.<\/p>\n
The existing budget way to get Facebook’s VR is the Samsung Gear VR at $129 – but that requires a high-end Samsung smartphone in order to work.<\/p>\n
Speaking at Facebook\u2019s yearly virtual reality developers conference in San Jose, Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged the slow adoption of the technology to date. But he said his company\u2019s goal was that one day, it would get one billion people into VR.<\/p>\n
To get there, the company needs to create a premium, standalone VR device that offers free movement. It hasn\u2019t managed that yet – the new Oculus Go should still be regarded as a budget VR experience.<\/p>\n
But the company\u2019s new head of VR, Hugo Barra, also shared more details about Project Santa Cruz, Facebook\u2019s prototype high-end device that will offer movement-tracking without the need for tethering to a computer, or the placing of sensors around a home.<\/p>\n
Many had hoped Project Santa Cruz would get a public release date, having first been announced at this event last year. Facebook\u2019s new head of VR, Hugo Barra, would only divulge that developers would be sent devices to work with within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n
Until then, Oculus Go is Facebook\u2019s biggest hope in stepping up the adoption of virtual reality among the general public.<\/p>\n
The device will be sent to developers to start building with in November this year. It will offer better visuals than the current Gear VR, but drops well short of the premium VR experience offered by the Oculus Rift and Touch controllers.<\/p>\n
‘Too crazy or complex’<\/strong><\/p>\n But the future of this massively-hyped technology is unclear.<\/p>\n Mr Zuckerberg opened the conference with an admission that virtual reality was still some way from being a mainstream product. In an effort to reassure developers working on expensive VR projects, he insisted this was typical of all big new ideas.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of them seem maybe too crazy or complex at the start,\u201d he told delegates.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people say that VR is isolating and anti-social. I actually think it\u2019s the opposite. We all have limits to our reality. Opening up more of those experiences to more of us – that\u2019s not isolating, that\u2019s freeing.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout 2017, Mr Zuckerberg – who has repeatedly said he\u2019s not considering a run for president – has travelled the US, meeting regular Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the places I have visited don\u2019t have the same economic opportunity as we have here [in California]. Enabling us to be present anywhere, creates opportunities for people everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n However, many think those opportunities will come from augmented reality, rather than virtual. Augmented reality is when digital images are placed over the real world in front of you.<\/p>\n The leader in this area is Microsoft with its Hololens product. It too suffers from expensive hardware and low adoption. But once the technology improves, some believe it might offer a great deal more than VR.<\/p>\n “I think one of the problems with VR as a mass-market proposition is that you’re unaware of what’s happening around you in reality,\u201d said analyst Mr Delaney.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you’ll only wear one of these things in situations where you feel secure about that. Largely, for consumers, that means only at home or in the car [as a passenger]. So although VR can be connected to mobile networks, it is not really mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘We’re working on it’<\/strong><\/p>\n Some believe the missing link in making virtual reality popular with this masses is content. In other words, even with the hardware getting cheaper, there\u2019s too few fun experiences to be had.<\/p>\n \u201cOculus Go is an important step to broaden the audience for VR,\u201d remarked Geoff Blaber from CCS Insight.<\/p>\n “But as Google’s Daydream platform shows, consumers still lack a compelling reason to adopt it. Developer support and compelling content are critical to building mass market interest.\u201d<\/p>\n