(Chinese Version)

Editor's Note:

Baofeng Technologies has launched two VR products, showing that the company’s founder Feng Xin has indeed decided to crack open this new frontier with an all-in attitude.

“If the VR sector is going to become the next Internet industry, then it has to tackle three main obstacles: the products, volumes, and user base,” Baofeng’s current CEO Huang Xiaojie pointed out.

Four months ago on the Mobile Internet Innovation Conference, Feng Xin stated in his speech that in just one year, VR technology would have a profound impact on fundamental Internet services. Without a doubt, Feng Xin made the right all-in move of entering the VR sector. Just recently the company announced that its VR product Mojing had been upgraded and that Baofeng would soon roll out its all-in-one product, showcasing Baofeng’s ambition to build an ecosystem of its own.

Baofeng’s CEO Feng Xin had stated in public for multiple times that the VR industry would have a major impact on the current industry layout just like what mobile games did to client games. VR, short for Virtual Reality, which can be referred to as immersive multimedia or computer-simulated realities, replicates an environment that simulates physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds and lets the user interact in that world. Virtual reality technologies artificially create sensory experiences, which can include sight, hearing, touch, and smell, allowing uses to escape from the real world for a period.

Over a hundred days have passed, and Feng Xin’s new move once again confirm industry insiders’ opinion on the VR sector, which is that VR is a direction that’s worth an all-in entry. Feng Xin even in some way risked Baofeng as a company in order to have a shot in this particular industry. On November 19th, Baofeng rolled out two new products in Beijing: the upgraded version of Mojing 4 and its all-in-one product.

Testing the waters with new products

It seems that Feng Xin has decided to make an all-in move into the VR sector as Baofeng recently launched two VR products into the market.

Mojing 4, priced at 199 RMB

It’s not hard for people that are familiar with Mojing series to notice that this new Mojing model entirely abandons the design of the last generation, making the headband into a hanging structure that reduces the pressure that users feel on their face. According to insiders, the headband makes the product 22% lighter.

The new spherical mirror adopts a FOV 96° lens which can greatly reduce the dizziness issue that users might experience and enhance the sharpness of vision. Additionally, it allows people below 600 degrees of Myopia to wear glasses when using the device. Mojing 4 has also modified its cooling hole design in order to allow users to customize the cooling fan and the new design is also supposed to be able to lower the temperature inside the device to 10 to 15°. Furthermore, the pupillary distance adjuster now adopts a symmetric design and the controller has been improved as well.

When glasses and helmets can no longer arouse consumers’ interest about VR products, the all-in-one products might become the new stars

Baofeng’s all-in-one VR device Mowang is positioned as the future of VR helmets. Up till now, all VR products need to connect with a computer, a mouse and a keyboard to function. Users are not able to just wear the headset and walk around freely, which shows a great limitation. And therefore, all-in-one products are more convenient to use and carry around.

But of course, Baofeng still has challenges to face. All-in-one products require the integration of hardware, software, services and contents. The user experience determines whether this whole chain would succeed or not. A tiny problem in any part will result in the failure of the whole product.

Baofeng also announced that Mowang was available for customization of hardware and software in hopes of providing the consumers with the best experience and optimizing the storage and duration aspects. The device is also supposed to be able to switch between local and online contents easily and not limited to mobile client but also PC. Mowang runs Android 5.1 and is equipped with an Intel Z8700 processor, a 2K display, a nine-axis gyroscope, and a FOV100° double lens. It has a built-in microphone, headphones, and an automatic cooling design. There are three storage versions for consumers to choose from: 32G, 64G and 128G. Among them, the 64G version is priced at 2999 RMB.

A number of entrepreneurs are testing the waters in the VR hardware sector, as well as Baofeng’s Mowang.

Tech specs of Baofeng’s Mowang

Content is what really matters

It’s commonly accepted in the industry that the lack of good content (including interactive games and videos etc.) is what’s holding the development of the industry back.

Baofeng didn’t neglect this issue. The company has put tremendous efforts in finding content providers for VR device. The most closely-related industry of the VR sector is the gaming industry, and this very industry is undergoing rapid changes. This year, many game developing teams are shifting their focus to VR games while Baofeng also has established its developer platform and is providing free SDK. It’s said that in the first half of next year a beta version of Baofeng’s social game Paradise would be launched, a game in which players could watch movies with other players and play shooting games. The first AR game The Gates Of Hell would soon to be released and according to the announcement it supports gesture control.

What’s more, Baofeng Tech cooperated with Beijing Film Academy to found The United Center of Beijing Film Academy and Baofeng Tech to study the emerging VR movies. The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part Two’s VR Chinese version has been first released on Baofeng’s platform. Furthermore, Baofeng has established a comprehensive collaboration with Iqiyi that covers the fields of TV programs, VR, client. Iqiyi’s vice president Duan Youqiao stated, “We are just a video site now, but we hope to be a fully-comprehensive platform in the near future.”

Feng Xin believes that the VR industry has just started to rise and very soon it would gain enough momentum. “The VR sector is really hot and many people are eyeing on this sector even though they haven’t really made their move yet. 80% of people in the Internet sector haven’t made up their mind yet. But still the seed has been planted, ” said he.

The VR industry has finished the first round of introduction of the concept of VR for the general public. And the next step is to make real good products that could speak for themselves. The current situation is that most consumers have high expectation for VR devices, which means a good product is what would really win over their heart.

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[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Ma Jing, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Garrett Lee (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.