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The Gear VR is dead, and it's long past time we said goodbye

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
"....Samsung's VR aspirations, both for the Gear VR and for the nearly equally inactive Windows Mixed Reality platforms,
are done for now. In both situations, Samsung was just the hardware
partner, and not really involved in the parts of the ecosystem that made
the most money in the end. And at this point, if Samsung were to try to
spin up its own system to replace what it has lost, it's not
immediately clear the company would be able to successfully pull it off.
...."



https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959
35 REPLIES 35

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
If Kevin is allowed to create a Bingo card that includes information about private messages he and I have had, as well as other personal attacks such as my previous bans, then I expect the Mod's to edit either both Bingo cards, or none of the Bingo cards.

I removed his name from the Card.

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kevinw729
Honored Visionary
Okay - once again, we have an attempted derailment. So, now that sulk is out the way, lets get back to the OP.

The reality of the GearVR's impact on the sector is interesting, especially considering the number of versions that actually were released. Many people miss these versions:

w4zwragxx760.png

Also in the Out-of-Home entertainment scene we used a number of versions of the system - though in recent years we had been aware of the suspension of support / development, and had to make alternative plans regarding servicing:

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https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I think the biggest problem with this discussion, which also comes across as "derailment" and "sulking" is with the sensationalist headline:
"The Gear VR is dead, and it's long past time we said goodbye"

Gear VR brought a lot of good to VR, and it's retirement shouldn't be mocked. Let's not forget the awesome Super Bowl Commercial it had:



kevinw729
Honored Visionary
For those that may have mistakenly seen this news as Samsung ending their involvement with GearVR, it is actually part of a restructuring of their investment in both AR and VR:

mj9mbqerx33j.png
 "...Fallah suggested that the Gear brand may live on for AR and VR in some fashion. “We have other plans for Gear,” he said, without elaborating further."

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/samsung-ar-vr-products-1203230284/

This is the closest information we have officially seen released (towards your previous question @RedRizla
), to the development of a Standalone headset that replaces their previous involvement with GearVR, but as with all official statements it errs on being vague. 

It is interesting to see the success they have had with the Samsung Odyssey and OdysseyPlus while other on WinMR faltered. Remembering the prototypes AR glasses that Samsung also demoed at CES2017 I think in the coming months this XR investment will be of interest. 
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@kevinw729 -I'm just surprised Samsung haven't announced anything yet if they want to compete with other VR headset companies. I've read the that link you put and noted that it said Samsung has plans to release “multiple AR and VR products” over the coming months. We are not even talking a year if that's the case, so they must have something in development right now.
I just find it strange though that they haven't said a lot more about this just to make people aware of it. These would also have to be a much better VR headset then the ones we are seeing now, because people are already purchasing the current headsets and it would be a hard sell if there wasn't any significant improvements.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

RedRizla said:

.....
I just find it strange though that they haven't said a lot more about this just to make people aware it. They would also have to be a much better VR headset then the ones we are seeing now, because people are already purchasing the current headsets and it would be a hard sell if there wasn't any significant improvements.




I totally agree - when they mentioned this in April'19 you would expect that a matter of months would see at the same time as the HTC Cosmos reveal - but both Asian companies have gone kinda dark on their full roll-out plans.

And this leads us to the reality of the situation. With the news also about Asian operation Xiaomi rolling back their involvement (and manufacturing line for Go), the core focus for Focus+ to Enterprise and Asia - and the suggestion that the Samsung AR/VR investment is being restructured and its clear that VR has changed its focus for these operations.

So that leads us either with three possibilities:

1. We see a flurry of release information after the vacation season
2. We see these projects go dark, with a announcement for CES2020
3. We see a minimal roll-out with limited penetration

This last option kinda resembles the very lean team behind the Valve INDEX (which recently got even smaller). And could come just at a time when we see major restructuring across the board. 

I am not sure if you also caught this news about HTC's situation concerning their business: 

HTC reports net loss

HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported a net loss of NT$2.23 billion last quarter, or losses per share of NT$2.71, its fifth consecutive quarter in the red. The company’s operating losses were NT$2.49 billion, with an operating margin of minus-88.5 percent, HTC said in a statement. However, gross margin rose 5.6 percentage points from the previous quarter to 20.3 percent and marked the sixth consecutive quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 2017, it said. Overall, HTC reported losses per share of NT$5.69 in the first half. The company did not elaborate on its financial results, saying only that it remained committed to providing premium virtual reality (VR) hardware, VR software and services, and its first 5G-centric product, the 5G Hub.



Thanks as always for a interesting discussion.   


https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959