VRAR Planet
According to data from the "Preliminary Smartphone Shipment Report" of third-party market research agency Omdia in the last quarter of 2022, global smartphone shipments totaled 301.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 15.4% compared to the previous year. Typically, the current quarter saw the most shipments, however, the trend has changed this year, with a decrease of 0.7% compared to the previous quarter. In fact, most major players experienced significant negative year-over-year growth during the quarter, with shipments falling by double digits.
From the double-digit year-on-year decline, it can be seen that the global smartphone market is very sluggish, which can be said to be a cold wind, and on the other side is the global XR hardware market. Omdia predicts that shipments of generalized extended reality (XR) devices, including AR, VR and MR, will reach 24 million units in 2023, up 67% year-over-year. Analyst Kimi Lin said that shipments of near-eye terminal equipment fell to 14.382 million units in 2022, down 1.3% year-on-year, lower than expected. Optimistic about 2023, as key products such as Sony's PSVR 2, Apple's mixed reality (MR) headset and Meta Quest 3, as well as new products HTC is expected to launch, will all bring a new round of growth.
The same agency's reports on smartphones and XR hardware present very different content, the former is bearish, the latter is bullish. This can also explain why the current mobile phone manufacturers are doing XR hardware, so in this issue of the kaleidoscope, we will take an inventory of those mobile phone manufacturers that do XR hardware.
Nubia
On February 17, 2023, Nubia's official Weibo announced that its first AR smart glasses, nubia Neovision Glass, will be unveiled at MWC 2023, officially saying that this AR glasses will open up all scenes of life, office, sports and entertainment. In terms of appearance, the design of nubia Neovision Glass is similar to most current AR glasses, which integrates the display through multiple layers of lenses, so as to display content without obstructing the view.
It should be noted that this AR glasses does not show the connection cable to other devices on the poster, which means that it may be the machine itself to perform the task of computing.
Red Devil
Last year's meta-universe was a big hit, as a game mobile phone brand under Nubia, Red Devil will naturally not miss this hot spot. At the beginning of 2022, the official said that in 2022, it will give full play to its core technical advantages, create a soft and hardware collaborative VR ecosystem, lay out VR ecological products, and create a meta-universe belonging to Red Devil.
Time entered the end of 2022, at the "comprehensive evolution, not only e-sports" theme flagship new product launch held by Red Devil, it was officially announced that the first VR glasses have entered the software tuning stage and will be officially available to everyone in 2023.
Huawei
On December 9, 2022, at Huawei's winter full-scene new product conference, Huawei's first smart AR viewing glasses: HUAWEI Vision Glass, was officially released, which can project an equivalent 120-inch virtual giant screen in front of the eyes and support 0-500 monocular myopia adjustment, with an offer price of 2,999 yuan.
As Huawei's test work in the AR glasses market, Vision Glass achieved good results after its official release in December. According to the 2022Q4 domestic consumer AR glasses market quarterly analysis report released by third-party market research agency Analysys in January 2023, Huawei Vision Glass quickly grabbed 7.5% of the market share and ranked fourth with its strong brand appeal and rich marketing channels and resources.
Meizu
In July 2022, Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Geely, and Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. held a strategic investment signing ceremony in Hangzhou, officially announcing that Xingji Times holds a 79.09% controlling stake in Meizu Technology and obtains sole control of Meizu Technology. With a backer, Meizu naturally wants to expand its product categories, such as making AR glasses.
In December 2022, @张老三言两语, general manager of Meizu's sales department, exposed Meizu's comprehensive product matrix planning for the future from 2023 to 2025, revealing several important information points. According to the news, Meizu will create a comprehensive product matrix of full-scene multi-terminal immersive experience, covering not only known mobile phones and cars, but also AR glasses, tablets, and watches in the future.
Time has entered 2023, and there is the latest news about Meizu's AR glasses. Recently, Shen Ziyu, vice chairman of Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. and chairman of Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., publicly said in an interview: "Xingji Meizu mobile phone project, Meizu mobile phone headquarters project and other businesses are progressing smoothly, and new high-end mobile phones and AR glasses are expected to meet with you in the first half of the year." (Note: For more information about Meizu's situation in the XR field, you can check out our previous article "Rui Comment|.") Meizu sells itself to Geely, XR field to fight Xiaomi again")
association
In August 2022, the Lenovo Savior VR700 was officially released, which is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip, equipped with 8G RAM and 256G ROM. VR700 is equipped with a fast response LCD screen with a resolution of up to 3664*1920, with 72/90Hz high refresh rate support, and the price of the product at that time was 3299 yuan.
In terms of design, Lenovo Savior VR700 adopts a cap-worn design, and carefully optimizes the front and rear weights, and the official said that there will be no obvious drag feeling when worn for a long time. The wide and soft face shield makes the viewing experience natural and comfortable for consumers wearing glasses. (Note: For more information about the Lenovo VR700, you can check out our previous article "Sharp Comment|.") Lenovo launched VR700, catching up with the second VR outbreak" Lenovo Savior VR700 is expected to break the pattern of Qiyu and Pico's domestic hegemony? 》）
millet
Although Xiaomi did not directly launch AR glasses, its ecological chain enterprise Hive Technology launched AR glasses - Mijia Glasses Camera in August 2022, highlighting Xiaomi's eager idea of the AR glasses market. (Note: For more information about Mijia glasses cameras, you can check out our previous article "Rui Comment|.") Industry ecstasy! Xiaomi has opened the correct way to use AR glasses", "Rui Ping | There are more than 5 combat effectiveness, and Xiaomi AR glasses camera is expected to become an explosion")
Although the Mijia glasses camera does not hang the name of AR, but it has AR function, as for why it is not called Mijia AR glasses, Xia Yongfeng, founder and CEO of Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Hive Technology, explained it this way:
"People's attention can only be concentrated in one place at a time, even the ultimate AR glasses, there is a primary and secondary problem: when you focus on the real world, the information displayed by the glasses should reduce the sense of existence, assist and enhance; When you focus on the virtual world, minimize real-world distractions so you can focus on the virtual content. Because of the objective reality of technology, no AR glasses can land and seamlessly switch between reality and virtuality, so we decided to make a glasses that are mainly real world, useful to people, abandon gimmicks, but are highly available and can be truly delivered. ”
OPPO
In December 2022, at the OPPO Future Technology Conference, OPPO Air Glass 2 was officially released, which is mainly upgraded from monocular to binocular for the previous work released last year, using the resin diffraction light waveguide lens developed by OPPO, and a Micro LED monochrome screen on the left and right of the lens, supporting speech inscription, voice translation, navigation, speech-to-text and other functions.
Although the price and release time of OPPO Air Glass 2 are unknown, it does not prevent OPPO from expanding the variety of XR glasses. In February 2023, overseas blogger Mukul Sharma posted trademark registration photos showing that OPPO has registered trademarks for OPPO AR GLASS, OPPO VR GLASS, OPPO XR Glass and OPPO MR Glass, which means that OPPO may soon launch XR-related products in overseas markets.
OnePlus
In November 2022, OPPO sub-brand OnePlus solicited netizens' views on AR glasses design on Twitter, saying: You can leave a message to say what you want to do with AR, and your answers may be integrated into our next product. In addition, the tweet was accompanied by an image of AR glasses that read: OnePlus wearable AR, soliciting design inspiration.
Considering that OnePlus' parent company OPPO has launched AR glasses, and manufacturers have the habit of doing product research from consumers and netizens before launching corresponding products, the probability of launching AR glasses is unknown.
Black Shark
Once upon a time, Black Shark was the leader of the game mobile phone market, but due to its own lack of strength and Tencent's abandonment, it eventually fell to the end of employees to claim wages. According to a former employee's estimate, Black Shark Technology needs to pay a total of more than 80 million yuan in layoff compensation, and the number of people who currently owe compensation has reached more than 500.
It may be that the revenue is not strong, and Black Shark began to cut its business to save itself. According to media reports, Black Shark took the lead in cutting off all mobile phone businesses and retaining VR business lines, hoping to seek new investors. Until the end of November last year, there may be no new financing hopes. In the end, Black Shark laid off its high-hopes VR business. The mobile phone business that originally depended on survival was gone, the promising VR business was shattered, and Black Shark was one step away from closing its doors.
Samsung
At the Samsung Unpacked event sharing session on February 2, 2023, Samsung announced that the company will work with Google and Qualcomm on a new mixed reality initiative to jointly develop a future XR device. In this partnership, Qualcomm will provide the chipset, while Samsung will provide the hardware and Google the software. It is worth noting that Google seems to be preparing a new Android version dedicated to wearable display devices such as headsets.
Long before the rise of the metaverse concept, Samsung was a heavyweight player in the VR market. In 2015, Samsung partnered with Oculus to launch the first generation of the consumer-facing Gear VR, which was a huge success. In a survey report on virtual reality devices published by market research company Super Data, data shows that the total sales of virtual reality devices in 2016 were 6.3 million units, of which Samsung's Gear VR sold 4.5 million units, accounting for more than 70% of the market share, which is a proper "leader". (Note: For more information about the Samsung XR, you can check out our previous article "Sharp Review |.") Caught by Microsoft, Samsung was forced to return to the XR market", "Rui Ping | Pull up Qualcomm, Samsung wants to stage the return of the king in the XR field? 》）
apple
Apple's MR device has experienced many bounced tickets and can be called the king of XR product bounces. As early as 2021, Tianfeng International analyst Guo Mingxi predicted in the report that MR/AR will be a major trend in the technology industry in the next 10 years. For Apple, he predicts that Apple's MR/AR product blueprint will be divided into 3 phases: helmet-style products in 2022, glasses-style products in 2025, and contact lens-style products in 2030-2040.
As a result, in 2022, the Apple MR device that many people are looking forward to has not appeared, so there are rumors that it will be released in 2023. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Apple postponed the release of its first MR device from April to June. Apple decided earlier this month to delay the launch as product tests revealed that there were still hardware and software issues, and now aims to launch at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, people familiar with the matter said. (Note: For more information about Apple's MR, you can check out our previous article "Sharp Comment|.") The "savior" or "passerby" of the XR market? Apple is expected to release AR/VR headsets at the end of the year Taking over the iPhone position, Apple's MR head shows the heavy responsibility")
Write at the end
Whether it has been launched or is about to be launched, it can be said that mobile phone manufacturers have increased their interest in XR hardware, coupled with Qualcomm and MediaTek launched XR hardware chips (such as Snapdragon AR2, Snapdragon XR2+, etc.), which is more convenient for mobile phone manufacturers to seize XR hardware, thereby promoting the prosperity of the XR hardware market.
According to a report released by wellsennXR, a third-party market research agency, global VR shipments are expected to reach 9.53 million units in 2022, down 7% from 10.29 million units in 2021, and rising to 16.74 million units in 2023. Perhaps the factors that promote the surge in XR shipments are the credit of mobile phone manufacturers.
Text/Trafalgaro