HTC's last "lifebuoy" to improve performance - VR

2017 is the 20th year of HTC's founding. But no one would have thought that this former mobile phone giant would encounter the biggest "mileage tragedy" since its establishment.

In September of this year, an agreement signed by HTC and Google accelerated the pace of “slimming”. According to the agreement, HTC members who originally participated in the manufacture of Google Pixel mobile phones joined Google, and HTC authorized its intellectual property to be exclusively used by Google. In this transaction, HTC will receive $1.1 billion.

The above cooperation means that HTC officially sold its mobile phone ODM business, retaining only its own mobile phone brand. But what is more tragic is that HTC, which used to be in the early days of the intelligent machine era, has to face the fierce market competition and has to vote for it.

In an announcement issued after the completion of the acquisition, HTC Chairman Wang Xuehong mentioned that this cooperation with Google has “not only injected strong innovative R&D momentum into Google’s hardware business, but also ensured HTC in smart phones and VIVE virtual reality. Sustainable business innovation."

This also released a new signal - the label on HTC is no longer just a "mobile phone company", but a more distinctive "VR company".

Bet VR is what HTC has been doing for years.

After officially launching Vive, a headset-type VR device, in March 2015, and officially announced its entry into the VR field, HTC has been hoping to use this new technology to help the company reverse the decline. To this end, they are even willing to sell part of their mobile phone business to Google to win a broader space for VR business.

HTC wants All in VR's determination, everyone can see, but can only help to turn the company that is already faltering into safety?

a line of dawn

On January 24th, HTC held a small-scale tasting of New Products in Shenzhen. This is the company’s first public event in 2018.

As if to show the new weather of the New Year, Wang Congqing, the president of HTC Vive China, was particularly attractive on stage. He spent nearly an hour sharing the HTC Vive's 2017 results with the audience in the market and the market outlook for 2018. This is 20 minutes more than the scheduled time period.

At least from the recent HTC VR product sales performance, he has reason to be happy.

According to HTC official data, HTC Vive's VR head-end products ranked first in the Jingdong VR sales list during the 2017 double-even period, although their product prices are not cheap.

With the VR industry getting colder, it is not easy for HTC Vive to maintain its leading position in the industry. Especially after VR became the core business of HTC, the burden on Wang Congqing's shoulders became more and more heavy.

“When we announced our entry into VR in 2015, it felt like we were walking into the maze. The outside world would feel that the product itself is very beautiful, but in fact the business model and profit prospects are still unknown.” Wang Congqing lamented the gap between the results.

It is not only HTC that can't see the direction.

Zheng Xi, research manager of IDC terminal system, told the interface journalist that the domestic VR industry has developed from 2014 to the present, and there has been a large fluctuation in 2017. First, many large international manufacturers have entered the field, such as Microsoft, making some Local companies are being squeezed. Second, the original VR vendors lacked sales channels in the commercial market and did not really open up the vertical industry customer market.

In this context, many of the VR companies that once caught the eye have calmed down in that year, and the VR industry has not opened the "performance" in advance.

But Wang Congqing tried to demonstrate a trend through a series of data: in 2018, the consumer VR equipment market will usher in real prosperity.

He believes that the VR industry as a whole has been ups and downs in the past year. Despite the difficulties and challenges, HTC Vive has persisted and achieved some results. Today, the dawn is in sight. Talking about this, Wang Congqing was slightly excited.

A group of data from the market research organization GFK injected a booster into the VR industry. In 2017, the online market size of China's VR headset reached 829 million yuan, an increase of 14% compared with 2016. GFK estimates that this number will rise to 1.17 billion yuan in 2018.

GfK's data also mentioned that under the general trend of overall growth of the VR market, the more primitive mobile VR faces being eliminated, the market share of high-end VR head-display and VR-integrated machines will gradually increase, and the willingness of users to purchase VR products of more than 1,000 yuan. It is also constantly increasing.

This coincides with HTC Vive's current product strategy.

Another highlight of this tasting session is that HTC Vive officially announced that the Vive Focus, a VR machine that was launched earlier, was officially shipped nationwide, and announced some of the latest configurations and system contents of the professional head display device Vive Pro. . It is not difficult to see from the promotion that these two products will be the focus of HTC Vive to seize the market in 2018.

In Wang Congqing's conception, the above two new products, together with the original Vive series VR head display, can basically meet the low to high VR requirements of users.

"In the past two years, we have been able to grasp the best opportunity, because HTC Vive has the most complete product line, regardless of the price or which user group, Vive can provide users with the most suitable solution." Wang Congqing confidently expressed .

Under his encouragement, there was also an optimistic atmosphere in the venue. A partner of HTC Vive believes that this tasting will be a bit more "material" than the previous ones.

Comprehensive reserve

In order to seize this trend, HTC Vive also hopes to do more. In addition to launching two new products, they are starting from the software level, and they are catching users by providing richer VR content.

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