The virtual reality market is slowly taking off and so some big video game companies are investing heavily on their own devices and accompanying software. While the market so far has been dominated by names like Google, Facebook (via Oculus) and Samsung now a new rival is jerking into the melee.
According to some recent rumors the company Xiaomi is about to expand its VR skills through a new partnership with the Chinese content provider, Jaunt China. The news reveals that Xiaomi has asked the content provider to develop applications and content for its virtual reality headset.
The partnership probably provides for a deal similar to that of Oculus's collaboration with Samsung, where the former has developed a proprietary application that can be viewed on Samsung's Galaxy Gear VR. However, the partnership between Xiaomi and Jaunt may also affect other types of media, as the content developed by Jaunt China will be distributed mainly to the United States.
Xiaomi also announced that their new VR headset will come with some very high quality content specially designed for their device. The partnership is also aimed at increasing the number of units sold around the VR viewer, also enhancing mutual visibility in the virtual reality market.
According to industry analysts, China is a huge market that has not yet been exploited. Market research estimates the value for VR equal to 5,5 billion CNY. Other Chinese companies are moving in this direction, for example Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, who are starting to invest some of their capital in the virtual reality market, hoping to create a thriving ecosystem for content creators. We are only in its infancy but with growing competition, consumers will see a real boom in VR content and hardware in the coming years.
