The market competition of the three new devices of VR, micro-investment and mobile cinema is fierce.

in fact, whether it was the mini projector that accompanied the smart hardware a few years ago, or the smart video glasses that came across VR in the first year, they all aimed at the movie market. In other words, VR glasses, which are popular overnight with the concept of virtual reality, not only face fierce competition among similar products, but also face external competitors such as "micro-investment" and "mobile cinema".

recently, two major trends have emerged in the field of VR. One is that the sixth generation of directors represented by Jia Zhangke have experimented with VR films, and the other is that in the field of VR hardware, watching movies has become a vertical segment of some products. In the case of the complex industry threshold of VR games, video has become an important way to fill the gap in VR content.

in fact, whether it was the mini projector that accompanied the smart hardware a few years ago, or the smart video glasses that came across VR in the first year, they all aimed at the movie market. In other words, VR glasses, which are popular overnight with the concept of virtual reality, not only face fierce competition among similar products, but also face external competitors such as "micro-investment" and "mobile cinema".

< strong > behind the three major devices, the rise of the movie market < / strong >

there seems to be no shortage of viewing tools in the Internet era. PC, mobile phones, smart TV and other popular, major video websites have experienced nearly a decade of competition, and accumulated a huge amount of content. But why there are still so many players scrambling for the beach movie market, perhaps from the following two angles to explain.

on the one hand, according to the data released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the box office of Chinese films in the first quarter of 2016 was about 14.4 billion yuan, an increase of 48.5 percent over the same period last year. According to this growth rate, China's box office in 2016 is expected to exceed 60 billion yuan. This is also another landmark achievement that China's film box office reached 44.1 billion yuan in 2015, after becoming the second largest film market in the world after the United States. On the supply side, the number of domestic films grossing more than 100 million at the box office increased from 9 in 2009 to 46 in 2015, an increase of 411%, while on the demand side, the number of annual moviegoers in China reached 1.26 billion in 2015, an increase of 51.4% over the same period last year. With the development of domestic films and the increasing consumption scale year by year, China's cinema market is likely to surpass the United States to enter the ranks of hundreds of billions of market scale.

on the other hand, survey data show that 70% of the domestic moviegoers are post-85. In terms of academic qualifications, 80% of the moviegoers have a college background. It is worth noting that these people are immersed in electronic devices almost every day, and there is no lack of basic conditions for watching movies, but why have they become the main force in cinemas? The affectionate explanation is the awe of the filmmakers, but the real reason is to pursue the sense of scene of watching the movie. According to another set of data, China built 1200 cinemas in 2015, an increase of 24.8 percent over the same period last year, and 8027 new screens, an increase of 34.0 percent over the same period last year. Even this rate is still lower than the growth rate of the number of moviegoers, not to mention that it is difficult for many white-collar workers to find time to see a complete movie.

hardware manufacturers are not the only ones who realize this. The paid viewing model launched by major video websites is in full swing, which has stimulated the birth of online movies. What is more exciting is that some video websites begin to explore the mode of "synchronous cinema", supplying the film directly to the audience from the producer side, saving the cost of watching the movie to a great extent. Of course, this is another starting point for hardware manufacturers to enter the movie market.

< strong > under the temptation of hundreds of billions of markets, who can win the tuyere of watching movies? < / strong >

VR and WeChat have all begun to watch movies under the banner of watching movies, and mobile cinema products such as GOOVIS smart video glasses have also begun to enter the movie market on a large scale. In the face of the hundreds of billions of movie market, all three claim to be "card-level" products in marketing, but in reality, no matter what kind of products they are, they should not only have the irreplaceability of mobile phone products in the user experience, but also give play to the advantage of portability compared to the cinema experience. For such products, you can measure them from the following three angles.

the first is user experience. The emergence and prosperity of new things are often accompanied by the subversion of traditional products, which is particularly important when the viewing equipment is so abundant.

after the outbreak in 2014, there are already a lot of brands on the market, including giant players such as Dell and Haier, as well as star products such as extreme rice and PaPa pocket cinemas. The positioning of micro-casting has been changing all the time, and the initial sound is mostly to replace the TV to occupy the living room, but now it is mainly located in "mobile phone companions" and auxiliary viewing equipment. It is lightweight in terms of portability, and it is difficult to mark it in terms of product life and visual effects, which is probably the reason why micro-investment has not become mainstream.

by contrast, VR is more like phenomenal products, especially under the call of Oculus, HTCvive, PS VR and other products, almost set off an upsurge of VR all over the world, giving rise to VR all-in-one computers, VR glasses, PC products and so on. The immersion of VR devices brings a sense of "parallel worlds" to those who experience it, which can be called a kind of subversion and a key reason to stimulate VR content entrepreneurship. But for now, more than 90% of VR devices cause dizziness, and VR glasses under 100 yuan are flooding the market, although they are indispensable to the early education market, and consumers' actual experience is quite different from the description in the textbook. On the one hand, the prices of high-end products such as Oculus and HTC vive remain high; on the other hand, there are VR glasses with mixed user experience. VR has a lot of potential in the movie market, and there is still a long way to go.

Mobile cinema products are not a new thing. The basic form was established in the 1980s. Now it is mostly a rational choice for VR manufacturers to compete for the movie market. In the case of GOOVIS mentioned earlier, its parent company is Nader Optics, which is the core component of VR and AR. From the current technology, 3D video glasses technology is more mature than VR glasses, but also more in line with the needs of watching movies. Taking GOOVIS-G1 as an example, using two 1920-1080 display screens, it can provide 3D IMAX cinema experience and avoid the dizziness which is difficult to be solved by VR glasses. 3D technology is one-way, which can present stereoscopic visual effect on the terminal device, while the VR virtual reality scene is interactive. Because the real world is 3D, the immersion that the real VR pursues is also a prerequisite for excellent 3D display.

the second is the richness of the content. In the Internet era, experience is the primary productivity, and what determines the user experience is not only the experience of the hardware, but also the richness of the content.

to put it simply, micro-investment and mobile cinemas do not have real content shortcomings to a certain extent, or invest enough money in content copyright, or seek the cooperation of content providers. after all, 2D and 3D video content is already rich enough, and the so-called deficiency is not technically insurmountable. As mentioned earlier, "synchronous cinema line" has become a direction that video websites are willing to try, and if WeChat and smart video glasses can meet the needs of cinema, there will be more forms of content cooperation in the future.

it is the VR device that is tied up in content. Even if the deficiency of user experience is put aside, the production cost of VR content is much higher than that of traditional 2D and 3D content. Although investors are optimistic about VR content entrepreneurs, major content production has also begun to test VR, from 0 to 1 is bound to go through a long process and constant trial and error. There are VR content entrepreneurs, the current domestic VR videos are mostly shoddy, want to solve the disadvantages of content, can not be expected in one day.

again, the limitations of using scenarios. All products are faced with cash, and there are often two ways to realize it, either to dig deep into the B-end market or to tap the potential of the C-end market.

in terms of micro-investment, VR and mobile cinema, micro-investment has been defined as a "mobile phone companion", mostly as an extension of the mobile phone screen. Due to the display resolution of 720p or less and the lack of projection brightness, the use of the scene is greatly limited. C-end users can also be used as auxiliary entertainment tools. Under the squeeze of professional projection equipment, it is undoubtedly difficult to enter the B-end market. From this point of view, VR and mobile cinemas are more imaginative in using scenes, but each has its own problems.

optimistically speaking, VR and mobile cinemas liberate the restrictions on venue, film arrangement and other cinemas, which can theoretically meet the needs of users to watch movies under various conditions. In the B-end market, some cooperation has begun in the fields of health care, real estate, aviation and so on. The limitation is that many VR glasses weigh more than 400g, low resolution, large image distortion, large color difference, strong lattice sense, large size, weight, poor comfort and other shortcomings are criticized, even if the lack of content is not enough to attract users to use for a long time. For mobile cinemas that have a similar appearance to VR glasses, such as GOOVIS-G1, the quality has been controlled below 200g, and the visual effect and comfort of wearing are far better than cheap VR glasses. However, VR glasses and smart video glasses have great similarities in appearance and basic functions, and may face greater marketing costs.

< strong > conclusion < / strong >

in this era of "the concept is virtual, the product is real", more and more entrepreneurs are lost in the "painting cake". The practice of GOOVIS (it is reported that crowdfunding was launched in JD.com at 10: 00 a.m. on the 18th) is an inspiration for the entire industry. Jumping out of the circle of VR and besieging the movie market with more mature products is not only responsible to users, but also helps them avoid unnecessary competition.

Edit: nancy