Chinese VR
A drawing of what is estimated as Xiaomi’s first virtual reality (VR) device has been found on Weibo. It has the form of a pair of goggles and industry experts are predicting that Xiaomi is about to enter the VR market.
Huawei is concentrating on the VR market as well. The Chinese company unveiled the Huawei VR headset in April this year along with its flagship smartphone P9. In addition, it recently announced that it would release a new smartphone supporting VR features this autumn. Oppo Electronics, which has recently become the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world in terms of market share, has worked on VR devices since 2014, too.
Under the circumstances, it is expected that Chinese companies will increase their presence in the global VR device market to a significant extent based on the huge size of the domestic market and their high-quality yet inexpensive products.
According to Silicon Valley-based tech M&A advisor, Digi-Capital, the global VR market is estimated to grow eight-fold between 2016 and 2020 to reach US$30 billion in or before 2020. Many of the other market research firms are predicting that Chinese manufacturers will account for at least 30% of it.