Facebook has recently held a distinct annual keynote at its California headquarters and has unveiled its exclusive stand-alone virtual reality (VR) headset called the Oculus Go.
The Oculus Go is designed to extend the appeal of the company’s VR technology to the masses.
The headset is called Oculus Go and it won’t require plugging in a smartphone or a USB tethering to reach a personal computer unlike the Oculus Rift or its arch competitor HTC’s Vive.
I am more committed than ever to the future of virtual reality.
-said, Mark Zuckerberg
This all-in-one device makes VR more accessible than ever and represents a huge leap forward in comfort, visual clarity, and ease-of-use.
The headset by its usability is extremely lightweight and features an HD LCD display and built-in speakers.
Tentatively as per the announced selling price, the device will cost $199 and will hit the markets soon.
This is a big progress since the Rift, which originally was announced for $599 and further required a separate computer to power the virtual reality experiences and games.
The strategy for Facebook is to make the onboarding to VR as easy and inexpensive as possible.
–said Brian Blau, Senior Analyst At the Gartner Research.
And $199 is an inexpensive entry for a lot of people who are just starting out in VR. The problem is that you will be spending that money on a device that only does VR and nothing else.
The Oculus Go will also take the Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard/ Daydream View VR headsets head on, both of which are relatively lower in price.
Oculus Go would be the most accessible and most advanced VR experience ever
-claimed Mark.
Oculus will help us realize the new goal of having 1 billion people dwelling in virtual reality at some point in the future.
Interestingly, a couple of days earlier, a cartoon version of Zuckerberg visited hurricane-damaged Puerto Rico, in a live stream that was part disaster tourism, part product promotion.
Also, they demonstrated the VR capabilities by going virtually into various pre-designed close-to-life set-ups of Mars, Moon, Space etc.
One of the most powerful features of VR is empathy. My goal here was to show how VR can raise awareness and help us see what’s happening in different parts of the world.
-he said, adding that he intended to publicize a partnership with the Red Cross where Facebook helps create population maps that are duly used by the rescue workers there.
Facebook has shaken up the Oculus management team and intends to take its VR capabilities beyond just video games. The former Google executive Hugo Barra is the present head of Facebook’s VR operations.
While other major technology companies such as Google and Microsoft are also betting on VR’s future, Facebook has taken this game even further with the new Oculus Go.
