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

After Apple announced its new Vision Pro on June 7, some major companies in augmented reality and virtual reality said that the debut of Apple's mixed reality head was a "watershed" in the industry, and they welcomed competition from Apple.

After months of speculation that Apple would release its own virtual reality or augmented reality products, Apple unveiled its Vision Pro headset at its annual global developer conference on Monday.

Wang Xuehong, CEO of HTC, said in an interview that Apple's move is an endorsement of the virtual reality and augmented reality industries. HTC turned to Vive headset business a few years ago because the smartphone business was in bad shape.

"Apple's entry into this market is a watershed for the whole industry," said Wang Xuehong. "this will bring more confidence to the global virtual reality market."

But she added that there was something wrong with the "closed" nature of Apple's service ecosystem. This restriction is even greater when it comes to the platforms and devices that users use to access Apple's services.

"Apple's iOS product and content distribution platform has always adopted a closed ecosystem, which may restrict developers from entering the new value chain," Wang said. "if   developers are locked in an ecosystem, it will be difficult for them to maximize their impact."

Apple said at the Global developer Conference that Vision Pro allows users to access applications in the surrounding space in a new way. Users can browse the app with eyes and gestures and search with voice.

Users can use Vision Pro headers to watch movies, including 3D movies that support spatial audio technology, browse photos or short videos, and play games. Users can call Microsoft Office tools and videoconferencing applications such as Adobe Lightroom to work.

According to Apple, the Vision Pro is equipped with the VisionOS operating system, a spatial computing platform developed by Apple specifically for the new Touxian, and developers can develop applications for Touxian as they do on the iPhone. The Vision Pro is scheduled to go on sale early next year, starting at $3499.

Apple also unveiled new features such as iPad operating system and Apple TV at the meeting on Monday. By contrast, the reaction to Apple's new head has been muted.

"when these devices are fully integrated with 5G technology and transmit content from the cloud, the next major change will occur," Wang said. "

Because it is difficult for its products to gain appeal in the highly competitive mobile phone market, HTC has spent years moving from its nascent smartphone industry to virtual reality.

In 2018, HTC sold most of its smartphone business to Google for $1.1 billion.

The virtual reality industry has not been paid attention to for a long time, and consumers mainly regard this technology as a way to play casual games, rather than a common device integrated into daily life.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is betting its entire future on the so-called "meta-universe" concept, where people will access the vast virtual reality world through Meta Quest headsets and Horizon Worlds VR social gaming platforms.

But so far, Meta has not brought widespread commercial appeal to its products, and the company loses billions of dollars in investment in the technology every year.

Recently, sales of head-display devices in the virtual reality industry have also been poor, mainly because consumers are struggling to cope with the sharp rise in the cost of living. Sales of virtual reality headlines in the US fell 2 per cent year-on-year to $1.1 billion in 2022, NPD Group, a research firm, said in December.

For companies like Apple, the announcement is also surprising, because Apple usually insists on waiting for a mature product to become popular among consumers before it chooses to enter the industry.

Still, industry executives say Apple's launch of a new headline is an important milestone in mixed real markets.

Urho Urho Konttori, chief technology officer of Finland-based Varjo, said in an email that this suggests that hybrid reality may have more viable use cases in the corporate world.

"Apple's entry into mixed reality with the Vision Pro is an important moment for our entire industry," Mr Cantori said.

"mixed reality has become a regular device in the enterprise field, and the innovative technology pioneered by Varjo has changed the way many large companies around the world work, train, design, research and cooperate."

He added: "We hope that today is a turning point in consumption, where mixed reality will begin to become a part of their daily lives and will have good application prospects in entertainment, personal productivity and communications."

"although Apple's new leader will not be available until early 2024, we expect Vision Pro to change the space computing world, thanks to Apple's design and VisionOS innovation," said Leo Gebbie, an analyst at market research firm CCS Insight.

"Virtual reality and augmented reality have recently experienced a period of intense scrutiny and questioning, but if there is one company that can use star power to revive this area, it is Apple," he added. "

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