At present, the domestic XR field has entered a period of intensive release of new products.
Just today, Pimax Technology launched the first shot of the new domestic high-end VR headset release in 2024. At the new product launch conference held by Pimax Technology today, the price of one of its products, the Crystal Super set version, reached 17999 yuan.
And a few days later,ARThe leader in the circleRokid,Will also hold a new product launch conference;Even Luo Yonghao, who has threatened to buy Apple, also revealed in the live broadcast that new technology products will be launched in September this year,Price199 and 299 US dollars,Industry speculation may be the upcoming AR or AI new products of Thin Red Line Technology。
In addition, there are many manufacturers who unveiled new products at the exhibition at the beginning of this year, and there is a high probability that they will be officially launched within this year. For example, AR manufacturer Thunderbird innovates Thunderbird X2 Lite, VR manufacturer NOLO's SONIC2 PRO products, etc.
At the time when Apple's Vision Pro is about to enter China, the release of new products by domestic XR manufacturers has entered an intensive period, which inevitably makes people reverie, whether they are "sniping" Apple Vision Pro or not, but they may start a head-on "fight" with Apple Vision Pro within the year.
01. New products enter the intensive release period
At present, the release of new XR products in China has entered an intensive period, and many XR manufacturers have begun to launch various innovative iterations of new products. In mid-April alone, two manufacturers launched new products.
First of all, the Pimax global conference on April 16, which was officially announced by Pimax, was held as scheduled. At the press conference, Pimax launched two VR headsets. Among them, Pimax Crystal Super has become a hot spot with its ultra-high-end configuration and innovative design. It is the world's first interchangeable optical panel that allows users to switch between QLED and Micro-OLED panels at will.
The Crystal Light has a high resolution of 2880 x 2880 per eye and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, and continues to use high-performance glass aspheric lenses, which can provide users with a highly competitive high-end VR experience, with a starting price of 5599 yuan.
High performance, often high price, Pimax Technology has always been, Pimax Technology focuses on the high-end VR headset market, last summer, Pimax Technology officially launched the consumer binocular 8K VR headset Pimax Crystal, its domestic price is 11999 yuan, overseas price is 1599 US dollars.
In addition to the high-definition display of binocular 8K, Pimax Crystal also supports many innovative designs such as lens replacement, battery hot swapping, and support for PC VR and all-in-one modes.
In August last year, Pimax Technology held a new Pimax Crystal product experience meeting in Beijing's 798 Art District. The reason why it is said to be "betting on the right topic",
Ren Pan, CEO of Pimax Technology, said that Pimax Crystal and Apple Vision Pro are similar in many aspects such as product design ideas and solutions. For example, taking the VST route and 8k display is the starting point for high-definition headsets.
At this experience meeting, Ren Pan said that before Apple released its products, Pimax felt very lonely in the high-end headset market. After the release of Apple's headset, I finally saw my companions.
Three days after Pimax released its new product, that is, on April 20, Rokid, one of the "AR Four Little Dragons", will also hold a new product launch conference. For this new product release, Rokid promoted it in March, which is enough to see how much attention it attaches to.
On the eve of the new product release, Rokid announced that it had reached a cooperation with Alibaba Cloud Disk to create a lightweight AR + cloud disk application and expand the construction of Rokid's ecological content. At this node, the news of cooperation with Alibaba Cloud Disk is undoubtedly a new boost to the grand occasion of new product releases.
Not only Xmax and Rokid, for example, in March this year, the 2024 VITURE product China launch conference was successfully held. The VITURE One XR glasses, VITURE One Lite XR glasses, VITURE One neck ring, VITURE One Mobaowu, three expansion adapters, and co-branded gamepads were released on the spot, and Gudong Technology released the first industrial AR smart helmet H4000 in 2024.
02.XR new forces entered
In addition to this, there is a series of manufacturers with new products to be launched soon.
For example, not long ago, Luo Yonghao revealed in the live broadcast of the fourth anniversary of Douyin's "Make a Friend" that new technology products will be launched in September this year, priced at $199 and $299, and the industry speculates that it may be a new AR or AI product to be launched by Thin Red Line Technology. Luo Yonghao also said that the new products will have "subversive and disruptive innovation" and are "high-tech products and intelligent equipment".
In addition, the well-known manufacturer Thunderbird Innovation may also release new products in the second half of this year. According to public information, the Thunderbird X2 Lite, equipped with the world's smallest mass-produced full-color MicroLED light engine, is expected to be officially launched in the third quarter of 2024.
It is reported that the Thunderbird X2 Lite weighs only about 60g, adopts binocular full-color MicroLED+ diffractive light waveguide display scheme, and supports multiple AI large model applications.
is also an AR manufacturer, at CES 2024 at the beginning of this year, Li Weike Technology unveiled a new all-in-one AR glasses LAWK ONE. It is understood that Li Weike's product is designed for outdoor scenes, and it uses the optical scheme of Micro LED+ binocular diffractive light waveguide, with a brightness of 1150 nits to ensure that the AR display can still be seen clearly in outdoor scenes.
For another example, at the beginning of this year, NOLO, a well-known domestic VR manufacturer, also unveiled its new products at CES 2024. ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL INFORMATION, NOLO BROUGHT THE NEW VR ALL-IN-ONE NOLO SONIC2 PRO AND NOLO RING FOCUSING ON MR FUNCTIONS.
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THESE IS THE NOLO SONIC2 PRO. According to public information, NOLO SONIC2 PRO adopts three-piece pancake optics and an extremely thin and light design. It also supports binocular full-color VST, and is equipped with a set of 32 million pixel 90Hz high-brush ultra-clear cameras, so as to achieve ultra-low latency shooting and display, and the visual depth is more accurate.
At the same time, NOLO SONIC 2 Pro is also equipped with NOLO's self-developed high-precision gesture recognition solution, which can be tracked without lifting both hands, and after a year-long algorithm iteration and optimization by the team, the current positioning accuracy can reach 10mm.
It is not yet clear when it will be released, but the main model currently on sale is the NOLO Sonic VR all-in-one. The product was released in May 2021, nearly 3 years ago. THEREFORE, THIS YEAR, THERE IS A GREAT PROBABILITY THAT NOLO WILL LAUNCH A NEW PRODUCT, AND THERE IS ALSO A GREAT POSSIBILITY THAT THE NOLO SONIC2 PRO WILL BE OFFICIALLY RELEASED.
It is worth noting that not long ago, Hu Baishan, executive vice president and chief operating officer of vivo, expressed a optimistic attitude towards MR at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024.
He said that the next product with the potential of mobile phones will be MR, which vivo has been preparing for many years and expects to launch the MR prototype next year on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.
03.“狙击”苹果Vision Pro？
It is not difficult to see that many domestic manufacturers are launching new products, or in the accumulation of new products. On the other hand, there is a big background under such a dense new product release, and the current Apple Vision Pro can be described as a product that stirs up the XR circle.
Since its official release in the middle of last year, the product has become a hot spot in the global consumer electronics circle. At the moment, Apple's Vision Pro has been confirmed to enter the Chinese market.
Recently, at the opening of the 2024 annual meeting of the China Development Forum, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple's Vision Pro will be launched in the Chinese market this year, and Apple is continuing to increase investment in research and development in China.
This is the first time that Apple has confirmed that the Vision Pro will be available in markets outside the United States this year. However, Cook did not disclose a specific time, but Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the Vision Pro is likely to be available globally before Apple's WWDC24 in June.
Just when Apple's Vision Pro entered China, many manufacturers released new products one after another, which inevitably made people reverie. However, it is obviously not important whether it is a "sniper" Apple Vision Pro, and the frequency of updates and iterations of many manufacturers is also an important factor affecting the new products it releases this year.
However, there is no doubt that Apple's Vision Pro's entry into the domestic market in the future may also bring a series of positive impacts to the domestic XR industry. On the one hand, Apple's Vision Pro, as a high-end headset product, will further promote the popularization and development of XR in China.
On the other hand, Apple's Vision Pro will promote innovation in China's local XR industry. Domestic XR companies can draw inspiration from Apple's Vision Pro's technology and design to enhance their innovation capabilities and product competitiveness.
In addition, the entry of Apple's Vision Pro will also stimulate consumer demand in the Chinese market. With the growing consumer demand for high-quality, high-performance XR equipment, domestic XR companies will usher in more market opportunities.
It is also based on the driving role of Apple's Vision Pro or will land in the domestic market, as well as the release of new products from other manufacturers, and the shipment of VR and MR headset products may increase significantly.
In terms of AR smart glasses, it showed a strong rise momentum last year. IDC data shows that in 2023, China will ship 262,000 AR headsets, a year-on-year increase of 154.4%, and at the same time, institutions continue to be optimistic about the future of the AR track. IDC predicts that China's AR shipments are expected to continue to grow rapidly in 2024, with a growth rate of more than 100%.
IDC said that 2024 will be a year of recovery, and global VR/AR shipments are expected to soar 44.2% to 9.7 million units. As global macroeconomic conditions improve, new headsets such as Apple's Vision Pro and more products launched by the end of the year will help drive growth.
Based on the benchmarking role of Apple's Vision Pro, new trends have begun to emerge in domestic XR products. For example, spatial computing, converged AI, etc.
Especially in VR products, the trend of transitioning from pure virtual reality (VR) to mixed reality (MR) will be more obvious. Existing and upcoming major players are leaning towards MR products or adding pass-through functionality to their successors to their original headsets.
This shift will result in a richer and more realistic experience for users, blurring the lines between the virtual and the real, increasing the degree of stickiness.
On the other hand, after all, the Apple Vision Pro, which costs tens of thousands of yuan, has been complained by many people, but some media quoted industry insiders as saying that as of the end of March, the total sales of Vision Pro in the US market have exceeded 370,000 units.
In the future, it will be interesting to see whether domestic XR manufacturers can withstand the pressure of Apple's Vision Pro to enter the domestic market and compete for the market on a large scale.