The Dawn of Augmented & Virtual Reality with Ben Bajarin

Leong Chung Wei Bernard -

Ben Bajarin from Creative Strategies and Techpinions joined us for the special 100th episode to discuss the dawn of the augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology. Starting from an account of his recent trip to Game Developer & VR developer Summit, Ben shared why this is the year for AR and VR to break out this year. We discussed the emerging AR and VR market with the different players from Asia, such as HTC, Sony & Samsung and US, for example, Microsoft, Google and Facebook and analysed the different business models for the headsets, software and content developers in the market. Last but not least, Ben offer his perspectives on the upcoming Apple event on 21 March and the marketing position of the rumored iPhone SE.  We closed with Ben giving his feedback and thoughts on what he hopes to hear from our podcast in the next 100 episodes.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Ben Bajarin (@benbajarin, LinkedIn) from Creative Strategies and Techpinions.
    • Quick introduction and what have you been up to since we last spoke? [0:58]
    • Recent developments for Game Developer Summit & VR Developer Summit 2016 [1:55]
      • What are the interesting developments that Ben have seen so far? 
  • Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) [4:20]
    • What is the industry definition for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in technology business? [4:47]
    • We have been told that VR and AR held great promises in the past two decades, but it seemed that it is going to be different this time. Why is it so? Is it due to technology advances in the frame rates and video or other factors? [7:06]
    • How are the AR and VR markets and ecosystems currently segmented? Are they used interchangeably by most research analysts? [8:42]
    • Mentions of Magic Leap and Microsoft Hololens with Microsoft adopting the term “mixed reality”? [9:40]
    • Who are the major players in the space given that there are US and Asia companies in the space? Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive and Sony Morpheus, Oculus Rift under Facebook & Google? [10:00]
    • Why is Apple not in the VR/AR business? [11:25]
    • Are the business models for VR and AR markets predicated on hardware (similar to console gaming) or software? [13:00]
    • Are Samsung, HTC and Sony end up becoming commoditised hardware OEMs for VR and AR? [14:50]
    • The potential of VR’s in disrupting TV. [15:20]
    • Given the rise of VR and AR in the content space, with the recent experiment by NY Times and companies like Jaunt VR, Immersive VR, Vrse, Penrose studios, how will these content companies play in the space? [17:11]
    • You have experimented VR sets with your kids, what’s the experience like? What are the VR headsets in the market and which ones are clearly looking to dominate? (Headsets of interest: Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, HoloLens, or Google cardboard) [19:36]
    • How VR technology and demos helped the retail business such as Best Buy in US. [23:10]
    • So far, we have seen applications of AR embedded with smartphones or wearables (Google Glass), are there any other used cases for AR, for example Niantic labs’ Pokemon Go and Ingress in gaming? [24:50]
    • Between AR and VR, in your opinion, which is likely to break out this year and why is it so? [28:00]
    • When are the China OEMs coming into the VR market, given that Samsung from Korea, HTC from Taiwan and Sony from Japan are already making headwaves with the headset? [30:20] 
  • Predictions for Apple Event on 21 March 2016 
    • What are the most interesting predictions for the upcoming Apple Event? [32:49]
    • We hear the rumors of the iPhone SE, why is Apple making this phone and is the strategy just for the emerging markets, given Apple is making a big play for India with China’s equities troubles at the moment? [36:29]
  • 100th episode question: As a listener, what is your feedback and what are the topics you want to hear for the next 100 to 200 episodes from here? [40:15]

Interesting References for the VR and AR discussion:

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Aspirus Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium) and Linkcious (and check out their other product, Chiibi). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Aspirus and sign up for their mailing list.