The year 2017 has not been too great for Nokia. Although the company mounted a comeback in the mobile phone industry, things are not going well in their VR department. More specifically, the company is ended support for their Ozo high-end VR cameras. Considering the device has 4K live streaming capability, one would expect more from this unit. Unfortunately, it may never live up to its full potential.
Curtain Call for Nokia in the VR Industry
A lot of people have high expectations for virtual reality, yet it is evident things don’t work out as planned whatsoever. Instead, we see a bit of a standstill in VR, which causes a lot of problems for the companies still active in this space right now. Contrary to what a lot of people expected, Nokia was active in the VR hardware division. That is now coming to an end, as the Ozo VR camera is officially “dead” to the company.
This news comes as a big surprise, as the Ozo has a ton of potential. Live streaming footage in 4K at 60 FPS per eye is pretty significant for the future of virtual reality as a whole. Unfortunately, the unit isn’t selling all that well, even despite a recent price cut. There is not enough VR demand by consumers, let alone professionals. Ozo is an innovation well ahead of its time in this regard, which will come to haunt Nokia by the look of things.
As the VR market develops a lot slower than expected, hardware sales are lagging behind by quite a margin. From this point forward, Nokia will focus its attention on smart health products. This means they will get out of the virtual reality industry entirely, which leaves a major void to be filled. Reducing investments in both financial and time sense makes a lot of sense for the Finnish company in this regard.
Unfortunately, this decision involves a lot more than halting production of the Ozo itself. About 310 jobs will be lost in the process, which shows how fickle the VR industry can be right now. There are plenty of opportunities waiting to be explored, but not every project will be successful. It is also true the Ozo has a hefty price tag, although this was reduced by quite a bit over the past few months.
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