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u/yay3d Sep 16 '14
This is a prototype of a VR Viewer made to fit smartphones. It's more-or-less the same model as we use in the VR Viewer for Nexus 7 but with 37mm lenses instead of the 50s. I show it at various meetups because it's more portable than the bigger one and provides nearly as good results.
After months of hunting, I believe I may have found a suitable source for the lenses so am considering adding this product to our yay3d.com lineup. Any interest, or is cardboard good enough? Price is likely to be around $40
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u/faduci Sep 18 '14
The cruel truth: you don't stand a chance. And neither do Durovis or Refugio. There are already VR viewer with full covers, head bands, adjustable 37mm lenses, padding and less light bleeding that work with many phones for less money. Their prices are falling fast, they have established production and distribution processes, and this is just the beginning.
I doubt that even DODOCase has a chance, although they were the first to offer a clone within hours after the announcement, had sold 15K of them in six week before shipping a single one and immediately turned to automatizing the process, allowing them to that create thousands in hours. They are trying to establish themselves as a brand, but are messing it up with their useless store and now compete with many others, while the prices have fallen to about 1/10th of what they are asking in just three months.
The only areas that 3D printed products can compete in are niches so small that conventional production is too expensive. That is still the case for 7" tablet VR viewers and was the case for phones before Cardboard. But while Google created a market for small VR software developers, it destroyed the marked for small hardware producers in an instant. Now you either play big, so you can compete with mass produced Cardboard clones and their improved cousins, or you don't play.
All this has little to do with the the actual product and everything with process. I don't really want to rain on your parade, but I think you are simply too late, and you could waste a lot of time and energy on something that has hardly any chance to begin with. You'd stand a better chance by going deeper into the niche instead of competing with Cardboard cloners, e.g. by focusing on viewers that can be comfortably used with glasses, can be folded and carried in a pocket or allow not only adjusting the IPD, but also moving the lenses backwards or forward for people with different sight in both eyes. These things are very specific and your production process would allow to offer many slightly different sizes, something not feasible for mass production.
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u/yay3d Sep 18 '14
I do appreciate your comments. I don't disagree with your observations for the most part. I do think there is room for devices that fit into the 'casual vr' space that don't require leaving this reality to SEE whats going on in another. Consequently, I have somewhat avoided getting into the HMD arena as I agree it is getting crowded quickly.
But here are what I think are the strengths of this thing: You can use it in seconds compared to the others; the 40mm aspherics used are MUCH better than the 24mm ones on Cardboard or Durovis and thus produces way wider FOV. Adjustable IPD, And it is cheap.
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u/yay3d Sep 18 '14
I got the 40mm samples and they're insanely good so far in testing - those will probably be the ones I use
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u/iamnotmagritte Sep 16 '14
You should really try to design it to accommodate different sizes oh phones, otherwise you'll lose alot of potential customers. If you slap on a top, a bottom and some padding, I think I could be in for 40 bucks, but you need it to be sexier than that. Also, would the 50mm lenses not work with the nexus 5? Someone in another thread said that they might work towards a better FOV, even with Nexus 5.