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Immersed cancelled its cheaper headset
The Immersive Wire - 9 October 2023 (Monday Briefing)
Tom Ffiske
October 09, 2023
Executive summary
Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:
Headline: Immersed cancelled its cheaper headset as 96% of people didn’t want it (longer read here and analysis below).
Conversation-starter: Umbrella Training made a virtual chef training programme.
Other stories: Meta laid off people working on its own silicon, Zappar is hosting AR Pioneers 2023 on 11 October, and Pico announced PICO Dev Jam, its first independent VR Hackathon (more stories below).
I did aerial yoga earlier this week. I flipped and flipped with the grace of a landtrapped salmon.
Analysis
Immersed cancelled its cheaper headset as 96% of people didn’t want it.
What happened? Immersed opened deposits for two VR headsets; one with 2.5K pixels per eye for $500; and the other with 4K for $750. The former was cancelled as 96% of people wanted the latter.
Why this is interesting: Consumer VR headsets typically follow an elastic demand curve; the cheaper it is, the more likely it will move units regardless of quality. It looks like the rules change when it is more geared towards productivity. Immersed offered a solution geared towards the workers, and buyers were more interested in 4K resolution than a higher price tag.
What this tells us: The price tag matters less for workers as they know that better resolution is worth the higher price. In other words, productive workers have an inelastic demand for high-quality hardware. Perhaps the Vision Pro knew this and priced itself accordingly.
Other notable stories
Got any stories? Let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.
Anything World launched Animate Anying, an AI tool able to rig and animate users' own models.
Arcturus announced the appointment of Steve Sullivan as Chief Product Officer.
Gabber is an AI-powered app available on Sidequest.
Haven appointed Claire Barnett as its Chief Commercial Officer.
Disclaimer: I am an advisor for Haven.
Legoland is adding AR games based on Paw Patrol and Squid Game.
Meta laid off people working on its own silicon.
Pico announced PICO Dev Jam, its first independent VR Hackathon.
Robbie Williams is making his first foray into the Web3 space by partnering with LightCycle.
The Red Cross and Warpin Reality partnered to deliver CPR in VR across Sweden.
Synth Riders has a mixed reality mode on 12 October.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is looking for insights on making a regulatory framework on the metaverse.
Whitney Museum hosted an AR exhibition.
Zappar is hosting AR Pioneers 2023 on 11 October.
Help corner
If you have a problem that you think could be solved by another reader of The Immersive Wire and would like to be connected, let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.
Immersive Tech Week, an event happening in Rotterdam, is looking for speakers on brain-computer interfaces. If you know someone, drop me an email in the address above.
Haven, a VR wellness company I am advising, is conducting a user testing program to get early access to our XR wellness platform, with sessions created by world-leading experts. Click here to sign up.
Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works within Accenture’s metaverse group. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.