The new StarVR headset
A new VR headset called StarVR will be the “shared-custody brainchild” of Acer and Starbreeze’s partnership.
In a joint release sent out this Sunday, the game maker Starbreeze and the PC maker Acer, will form a partnership to manufacture, launch and sell a new virtual reality headset called StarVR.
This new move could bring positive change for the PC maker’s overall ailing business, or it could create a disaster. The numbers will show; it must be known, however that since 2011 Acer is on a continuous PC market sliding slope.
Starbreeze, the relatively small Sweedish Company, announced the StarVR headset a year ago, but giving its fierce giant Facebook, Sony and HTC rivals and its personal $10 million 2015 sales, they needed a partner.
Starbreeze needed leverage to reach the level of manufacture and distribution of Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and Vive; they needed help to be able to compete fully with these powerfully marketed headsets.
Nevertheless, the product is believed to be one of the best VR headsets to enter the market. Its standout feature is a 210-degree field of vision, a view that mimics much better what someone sees in real life than the 110-degree vision field of Oculus and Vive.
Although Acer is in freefall with the sales growth, the company’s annual sales reach $1.2 billion. This means that Acer has the money and engineering capacity to scale Starbreeze’s StarVR. More important than that, Acer has the immense computing power needed to deliver the deeply engaging 3D video experience of the virtual reality.
Acer’s bet on Starbreeze might, in fact, be a smart one because PC makers are almost absent from the virtual reality business and everybody – see Amazon or Alibaba – are investing in VR connecting platforms and software.
Acer will likely capture a good portion of the VR market profit.
The advisory firm Digi-Capital says that by 2020, up to “40% of all VR sales will come from hardware.”
To have a virtual reality experience you must have the hardware, yes, but the profit doesn’t stem just from the hardware, it comes from the virtual experience as well.
Therefore, Acer’s partnership with Starbreeze is no chance. With StarVR, Acer will be at both ends of the VR rope: both software with Starbreeze, and its personal computing power and hardware.
Image Source: Everythingvr
