The social giant shows off new headsets from its Oculus brand and makes an earlier price cut permanent. The goal: to get 1 billion people to try its tech.
这家社交巨头展示了它的Oculus品牌的新耳机,并使其提前降价。目标是让10亿人尝试科技。
Mark Zuckerberg wants to turn you – and another 999,999,999 people – into VR believers.
马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)想要把你和另外99999999人变成虚拟现实的信徒。
As part of Facebook’s latest quest to make virtual reality an everyday part of our lives, the company’s CEO is bringing out the biggest weapon he can think of to win over customers: deals he thinks you can’t refuse.
作为Facebook最新努力让虚拟现实成为我们日常生活的一部分,该公司的首席执行官正在拿出他能想到的最大的武器来赢得客户:他认为你不能拒绝这些交易。
The world’s biggest social network, which jumped into VR when Zuckerberg bought startup Oculus for more than $2 billion in 2014, dropped the price of its Rift headsets by $100 to $399 at its VR developer conference on Wednesday. It also announced the Oculus Go, a $199 mobile VR headset that loses the wires, attached computer and sensors you need to power the Rift. The Oculus Go is due sometime next year.
2014年,扎克伯格以超过20亿美元的价格收购了初创公司Oculus,这一全球最大的社交网络在周三的虚拟现实开发者大会上,将其Rift头盔的价格下调了100美元至399美元。它还宣布了Oculus Go,一款售价199美元的移动VR头盔,它失去了电线,连接了电脑和传感器,你需要为Rift供电。明年某个时候,Oculus就会推出。
Facebook believes both the Oculus Go and the lower price for the Rift will make clear that it’s the go-to company for people considering buying into VR tech.
Facebook认为,Oculus公司和Rift售价较低的公司都将明确表示,它是考虑购买VR技术的人的首选公司。
That’s key since app developers and analysts think VR headsets still cost too much to attract a mass market audience. And so far, that seems to be holding true. Oculus sales were slow in the device’s first year on the market, falling shy of 250,000 units, people familiar with the matter said. But after Oculus dropped the price – twice – demand began to swell.
这是自应用程序开发人员和分析师认为VR头盔成本太高,无法吸引大众市场的关键因素。到目前为止,这似乎是正确的。知情人士说,Oculus在该设备上市的第一年销售放缓,低于25万套。但在Oculus降价两次之后,需求开始膨胀。
Zuckerberg didn’t offer up any sales data on the Rift, but he did wax poetic about the potential for the still-nascent technology to change how we live and work, from the way we interact with one another to the way we play games and watch movies.
扎克伯格没有提供关于这一裂痕的任何销售数据,但他对仍处于萌芽阶段的技术可能会改变我们的生活和工作方式,从我们与他人互动的方式,到我们玩游戏和看电影的方式,都充满了诗意。
“We believe that the future can be a lot better,” Zuckerberg said in a 15-minute presentation on the first day of the Oculus Connect developer conference in San Jose, California. “It’s not about escaping reality, it’s about making it better.”
“我们相信未来会更好,”扎克伯格在加州圣何塞举行的Oculus Connect开发者大会第一天的15分钟演讲中说。“这不是逃避现实,而是让它变得更好。”
When you put on a VR headset, it holds a screen so close to your face that you’re tricked into thinking you’re actually in a computer-generated world. You might feel, for instance, that you’re traveling in space, or you could look at a model of your heart before surgery, Zuckerberg said. “We’re legitimately excited about the future and we’re committed to making it a reality.”
当你戴上VR头盔时,它会在你的脸附近设置一个屏幕,让你觉得自己实际上是在一个电脑生成的世界里。扎克伯格说,举个例子,你可能会觉得你在太空旅行,或者你可以在手术前看一下你的心脏模型。“我们对未来感到非常兴奋,我们致力于让它成为现实。”
So are some of his rivals. In the three years since Facebook bought Oculus, Sony began selling its PlayStation VR for $400, HTC offered up the Vive for $599, and Google introduced its Daydream View for $99. Meanwhile, Microsoft is partnering with device makers like Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer and Samsung to create headsets that work with its popular Windows software for as little as $300 apiece.
他的一些竞争对手也是如此。在Facebook收购Oculus的三年时间里,索尼开始以400美元的价格出售PlayStation VR,HTC以599美元的价格推出了Vive,谷歌以99美元的价格推出了它的Daydream View。与此同时,微软正在与联想(Lenovo)、戴尔(Dell)、惠普(HP)、宏碁(Acer)和三星(Samsung)等设备制造商合作,打造以其受欢迎的Windows软件为基础的耳机,每台售价仅为300美元
“We want to bring people from ‘it’s crazy to own a VR device’ to ‘it’s crazy not to,’” Nate Mitchell, an Oculus co-founder and the company’s vice president of product, said in an interview. “I think demand is there at the right price and with the right content.”
Oculus联合创始人、该公司产品副总裁内特•米切尔(Nate Mitchell)在接受采访时说:“我们想让人们从‘疯狂到拥有虚拟现实设备’到‘疯狂不去’。”“我认为需求是在合适的价格和合适的内容。”
Ambitious goal
Facebook has a massive network, with more than 2 billion people using it at least once a month. But while Zuckerberg wants 1 billion VR users, he didn’t say exactly when he expects to reach his goal of upending the way we use computers.
Facebook拥有庞大的网络,每月至少有超过20亿人使用它。但是,虽然扎克伯格想要10亿的虚拟现实用户,但他并没有确切地说他什么时候才能实现他的目标,即我们使用电脑的方式。
“It’s a challenge,” said Brian Blau, an analyst at research firm Gartner.
“这是一个挑战,”研究公司Gartner的分析师布莱恩·布劳(Brian Blau)说。
So how long might it actually take?
那么它实际需要多长时间呢?
Maybe five to 10 years, said Blau. His forecasts for VR headsets are mapped out to 2021, and a mass of 1 billion users isn’t “on the forecast. Period.”
也许5到10年,Blau说。他对虚拟现实头盔的预测已经绘制到2021年,有10亿用户没有预测。期。”
And a big reason consumers aren’t buying into VR? Price. Even a $400 Rift still needs a $500 PC to power it. The Oculus Go, at $200, may be closer to the price people are used to paying for subsidized phones.
消费者不买VR的一个重要原因是什么?价格。即使是400美元的裂谷也需要500美元的个人电脑来驱动它。Oculus售价200美元,可能更接近于人们用来支付补贴手机的价格。
There’s also the issue of what you do with all that VR gear once you get it. There isn’t a killer app or experience that draws people to these devices in the same way that playing tennis and golf on Wii Sports helped Nintendo’s Wii video game console become a hit in 2006. Or the way that email, YouTube and web browsing helped draw attention to Apple’s first iPhone in 2007.
还有一个问题是,一旦你得到了虚拟现实设备,你会怎么做。没有一个杀手级应用或体验能吸引人们使用这些设备,就像在Wii运动中打网球和高尔夫球一样,任天堂的Wii游戏机在2006年风靡一时。或者是电子邮件、YouTube和网络浏览的方式,帮助人们注意到苹果在2007年推出的首款iPhone。
“There are challenges to work through,” Zuckerberg said, acknowledging some of the concerns in his speech. He also said the devices need to be less bulky. “That’s not great, we’re working on it.”
扎克伯格在演讲中承认了一些问题,他说:“我们面临着挑战。”他还说,这些设备需要更少的笨重。“那不太好,我们正在努力。”
We want to bring people from ‘it’s crazy to own a VR device’, to ‘it’s crazy not to.’
The Rift itself is less than seven inches across and four inches deep, which is a little less than a bread loaf pan. It also weighs about a pound, not including the 13-foot cord that plugs into a high-end PC to power it.
裂谷本身直径小于7英寸,深4英寸,比面包卷小一点。它还重约一磅,不包括插入高端PC机的13英尺长的电线。
Even with all the work needed to convince us to buy into VR, Facebook insists the promise is still there. Two years ago, he talked about how he couldn’t wait to watch a replay of his daughter Max’s first steps while he wears a VR headset strapped to his face.
即使有了说服我们购买VR的所有工作,Facebook仍然坚持承诺仍然存在。两年前,他谈到了自己迫不及待地想看女儿马克斯第一步的回放,而他戴着VR头盔,戴在脸上。
He echoed his optimistic view of VR on Wednesday.
周三,他表达了对VR的乐观看法
“We have the ability to create a world where fewer of us are limited to only doing jobs that are nearby us,” he said. “Enabling us to be present anywhere creates opportunities for people everywhere.”
他说:“我们有能力创造一个世界,在这个世界上,只有少数人才能在我们身边工作。”“使我们能够在任何地方出现,为世界各地的人们创造机会。”
With more than $35 billion in cash, Facebook can certainly afford to create those “opportunities” by cutting prices even more.
Facebook拥有超过350亿美元的现金,当然可以通过降价来创造“机会”。