Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a Q&A session on Instagram Wednesday in which he shared his thoughts on future plans for Oculus virtual and augmented reality devices. According to Zuckerberg, the company wants to eventually transition to a console-based sales scheme for such gadgets.
Historically, game console manufacturers have always sold their consoles at a loss or a minimal profit. Thanks to this, consoles were sold in large numbers, and their manufacturers compensated for the lack of revenue by selling games and various services. Facebook, which owns Oculus, wants to follow the same approach to sales of XR devices in the future. Note that the concept of XR (Extended Reality) combines virtual (VR), augmented (AR), modified (MR) and cinematic (CR) reality devices.
According to Zuckerberg, to make XR devices more popular with consumers, two things are needed: a wireless device that provides a quality user experience, and a low price that consumers will be willing to pay for it. The market for wired XR devices isn’t going anywhere, but Zuckerberg thinks these solutions will remain niche.
“I think the market will split into two categories. One will feature less affordable wired solutions, and the other, aimed at the mass consumer, will offer wireless devices. They will be much more affordable for customers, even though they are a little more difficult to develop compared to wired ones. The choice in favor of wireless devices is very important. As for the price, it should be as low as possible for such devices. If the goal is to expand your customer base, then you should hardly try to make money by selling devices at premium prices. Here it will be important to lower the price of the gadget as much as possible, perhaps even selling the device at a loss, in the hope of making up for the loss by selling apps and services for this device in the future. Historically, that’s what game console manufacturers do,” Zuckerberg said.
