Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On February 13, foreign media said that Pico, a company owned by byte jump, began to increase its shipments of virtual reality headsets in order to compete with Meta's Quest 2 series devices and seize more market share in the field of virtual reality headsets.

The following is the translation:

As the popularity of its short video app TikTok has soared, byte jump has been competing with Meta's Instagram and Facebook services for users and advertising revenue. The competition between the two companies intensified two years ago when Byte Jump bought Pico, a start-up that makes virtual reality headsets.

Industry data show that Pico's headset shipments have increased significantly since then. Although Pico does not sell consumer virtual reality headsets in the US, it has become the second largest virtual reality headset manufacturer in the global market after Meta but with stronger growth.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, renamed Facebook Meta in 2021, in part to highlight his focus on the meta-universe business.

As a more immersive Internet, meta-universe is mainly realized through virtual reality headsets. Meta has also been investing heavily in the concept of meta-universe. In the company's most recent quarterly results, Meta said that while the decline in sales of Quest 2 headsets led to a 17% drop in total revenue from Meta reality labs in the quarter, sales of more than 200 apps on its virtual reality platform exceeded $1 million.

About a year ago, Meta's virtual reality headsets accounted for 90 per cent of the market, but by the third quarter of 2020 it had fallen to about 75 per cent, according to IDC, a market research firm. Over the same period, Pico's market share more than tripled to about 15 per cent. Apart from these two companies, no other virtual reality headset manufacturer has a market share of more than 3%.

As of 2022, the market value of virtual reality headsets is $4 billion. According to IDC, Meta's shipments of virtual reality headsets fell 48% in the third quarter of last year compared with the same period last year, and byte-bouncing Pico is the only manufacturer of similar products with an increase in shipments.

A spokesman for Meta said: "We are pleased that consumers have more ways to experience virtual reality, which helps promote ecosystem development, thus encouraging developers to create more excellent content."

Pico currently launches consumer-grade virtual reality headsets in European and Asian markets. Jitesh Ubrani, IDC research manager, said Pico was able to attract more consumers in these markets in part because Meta raised the price of its Quest line by $100 last year. After the price adjustment, Meta's Quest 2 device sells for $399, while Pico's consumer flagship product retails for about $450. Pico has broken into some overseas markets where Meta devices have not yet been involved, he said.

Pico's latest consumer device, the Pico 4, was released in October last year and has been well received in the industry. But the latest figures do not reflect Pico 4 sales. "if anything, you will see their momentum gain in the fourth quarter," Ublani added. Last October, Meta also released a new product for professionals, the Quest Pro, which retails for $1500.

The competition in the virtual reality headset market is becoming more and more fierce. Apple is expected to launch an augmented reality headset later this year, and Microsoft is also launching a hybrid reality headset called HoloLens for companies. According to IDC, the headset market is expected to become an industry worth $16 billion by 2026.

"this area is going to be crowded with competitors," said Rolf Illenberger, chief executive of VRdirect, a virtual reality software company.

Rich applications are critical to enhancing the attractiveness of virtual reality platforms, while Pico is still in the early stages of expanding its product range. There are currently about 250 applications in the Pico App Store and more than 400 in the Quest family of products. Last fall, Pico launched a social gathering and virtual world app called Light World when it launched Pico 4, similar to Meta's Horizon Worlds.

Sonam Mobbs, 40, an IT support worker in Northampton, UK, acquired the device on the day of its launch and used it to play games every day. On the first day of the Pico 4 launch, Mobbs bought the new equipment.

"when you switch between the two, the biggest difference I notice is clarity," he said. "the Pico 4 lens is better." He also said that Pico 4 is more comfortable to use.

Mr. Mobbs says he spends at least five hours a week playing virtual reality games. After using the Pico device for three weeks, he sold his Quest 2 on eBay.

The company was founded in 2015 and initially focused on enterprise headsets, according to the Pico website. After being acquired by byte jump, Pico announced in May 2022 that it would start selling consumer-grade devices in Europe and Asia.

Glenn Kachmar, 55, lives in Vancouver, Canada, and is a virtual reality professor. He said he only heard about Pico last year and had been using Meta's Quest 2. Kahmaar ordered a Pico device from Spain.

Mr Kahmar said the Pico was "a better device in many ways", noting in particular that the Pico device had a higher screen resolution and more comfortable to wear, but he had been reluctant to give up his Quest 2. Kahmar says he can access more games through his Quest device, and that games he has already purchased cannot be transferred to Pico devices.

"I really don't want to waste a lot of money on apps I've already bought," Kahmar said.

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