Revisiting Reality

One of my favorite things about the technology industry is its ever changing nature. It's unpredictable. It's fast paced. Fads come and go. The same can be said of technology companies.

I frequently think back to Research in Motion (RIM) who had the most desired phone device in 2007 when I entered college and by 2011 when I graduated - it was nearly obliterated from the mindset of consumers.

Given that we have officially reached the six month anniversary of my starting the Byte, I unintentionally found myself revisiting a subject matter I discussed in one of my first posts - mixed reality.

In January 2019, I proclaimed that the great love affair with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality was over. Dead. Done. Gone.

Don't believe me - here's the link to my post.

Fast forward six months and what do I find myself bombarded by at the 2019 AT&T SHAPE conference…

Virtual Reality. Augmented Reality. And…Extended Reality (XR).

Quick side note - For the non-techies, here's a helpful guide which breaks down the difference between Extended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality.

Love Game of Thrones? WarnerMedia, in conjunction with Magic Leap (a well-known VR firm), offered an opportunity for attendees to slip on a Magic Leap headset and fight a Wight and White Walker. (The wait time for this particular attraction: 2+ hours long).

Maybe Batman's more your style. No problem - walk less than a block down the lot and you'd see an advertisement for the Batman: Arkham VR experience. There users donned a Vive Pro, a wireless headset, and became the capped crusader. (The wait time: 1+ hours).

Perhaps Deep Space is more your fancy. Again, walk less than a block down the lot and you'd have the opportunity to wear an Oculus headset (owned by Facebook) to learn and experience deep space exploration narrated by Brie Larson. (The wait time for this particular attraction: 1+ hour).

Maybe placing a large headset on your crown messes with your hairstyle. You want something more adult. Not a problem. Down another block, you'll find a company called "Tactic" who created an augmented reality experience for a very popular beverage company… Jack Daniels. By merely downloading an app and holding it up to the label of a Jack Daniels bottle you'll unlock an entire experience about the company from learning about the mysterious Jack Daniels himself to the distillation process for whiskey.

Now some of you may be thinking - Mary must have been wrong about mixed reality - if it was literally everywhere at this conference. And that's fair. I will admit, it was amazing to see the overall interest level of the public. At multiple exhibits, I was astounded by how many people inquired what type of headset was being used for the experience. Or how many were willing to stand in line for up to 2 hours for an experience that lasted less than ten minutes in the hot California sun.

However, my overall feelings about mixed reality remain the same. It's a business that remains challenged by two key components - price and speed.

Mixed reality opens up opportunity for people - to visit deep space and have experiences like astronauts but comes with a hefty price tag. I heard the manager of one booth mention in passing "there's so much interest in VR but few people are willing to shell out the $500 to $1000 for an actual headset." His comments hit the mark - there's not enough use cases for me as a consumer to justify paying that much for a device that I still consider in its beta form.

Conversely, I am willing to hand over $1000 to Apple for a new iPhone because of the everyday use of it. A few weeks ago, I calculated that I paid $1.83 per day for my iPhone (~$55/month payment plan for 18 months) - what an ROI!

The other issue is speed. Mixed reality needs a fast network connection to actually mimic the experience. During my day at SHAPE, I saw slowness in lines and unhappy participants because of challenged WiFi that caused the headsets to malfunction. Your overall experience, as it turns out, is dependent upon your headset and the network its connected to.

Enter 5G.

Article after article claims that 5G is going to change the game and many have been bullish on mixed reality. Originally, I was a skeptic -how can more speed be the answer? Yet my experience at SHAPE made me rethink that assumption.

Throughout the conference, I saw signs promoting 5G and its multiple use cases - like this sign below demonstrating that 5G will allow companies to "cut the cord" on mixed reality devices. This means the user can truly become "wireless" and no longer be tethered to heavy backpacks (which was my experience several months ago at Two Bit Circus).

Perhaps the most thrilling use case I saw was 3D image capture in which a 360 image of myself was captured and then pushed to a 5G enabled device in mere seconds (I saw speeds of over 1000 Mbps). I've posted the video in this blog so you can see for yourself.

So, after this weekend is mixed reality ready for mainstream? No, it's not, but I am more convinced if handset prices fall and higher speeds can be deployed, it stands a better chance of penetrating consumer sales.