Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 530: No one is crazy, it’s just that times have changed!

As July came, there was suddenly a lot of news about virtual devices.

Many sources are saying that Zhiyun Group is about to release an entry-level virtual device to lower the barrier to entry into the virtual world.

"We have very accurate information. The virtual device factory under the exclusive foundry of Zhiyun Group, Weiku Electronics, is producing a brand new virtual device, and it is also a cheaper entry-level virtual device!"

"At the same time, we can also see that Zhiyun Group is opening virtual equipment flagship stores in more cities in China and even in many cities overseas."

"All this means that the production capacity of Zhiyun Group's Yun VW virtual devices will increase significantly in the short term. Perhaps we can expect more virtual devices to be put on the market to meet people's yearning for the virtual world!"

Not only many domestic media and netizens are paying attention to it, but also media and netizens in most overseas countries are paying attention to it.

After all, Zhiyun Group's Yun VW virtual device has created a new virtual world... although this virtual world is very different from the virtual world described in many science fiction novels and cannot achieve the level of direct brain wave connection.

However, through clever design, a highly immersive visual and auditory experience is achieved, coupled with an immersive action experience and appropriate force feedback.

These can already provide a basic virtual world experience... although it is not a real virtual experience, but at least it looks something like this.

And this has shocked people greatly.

With the advent of the virtual world, many people, even some middle-aged and elderly people, are very interested in it... They were young once and also wanted to experience the so-called virtual world.

But it’s not easy to experience the virtual world these days!
The cost of entering the virtual world experience is still relatively high.

If you purchase virtual equipment privately, the cheapest one starts at 99, which makes % of families unable to afford it, or they are unwilling to afford it!
too expensive.

Going to a virtual experience center is actually not cheap. The cheapest one-hour session at the virtual experience center operated by Zhiyun Group costs 100 yuan, and it is very difficult to make an appointment... because the virtual experience center operated by Zhiyun Group's subsidiaries is only for creating samples, not for operating virtual experience center business itself.

After all, Zhiyun Group sells virtual equipment, not an Internet cafe... There is a big difference between the two.

Therefore, the virtual experience centers operated by Zhiyun Group's subsidiaries will only be opened in a few large cities to provide examples for people, especially investors. They will not invest on a large scale and open virtual experience centers on their own, so it is difficult to make an appointment.

Virtual experience centers still rely mainly on third-party investors.

The virtual experience center opened by third-party investors is easier to book, but the price is also expensive.

In domestic virtual experience centers, the price of the cheapest entry-level virtual equipment is around 150 yuan, and some are even higher.

This is still referring to the domestic price. If it is from abroad, it will be more expensive... because domestic virtual equipment is more scarce.

On the one hand, after Zhiyun Group's virtual equipment enters the local overseas market, it is affected by shipping costs, tariffs, local taxes, administrative and marketing costs, and its price is much higher than in China.

On the other hand, there are fewer virtual devices supplied from abroad, and things are expensive because they are scarce. There is less supply of virtual devices from abroad, and fewer virtual experience centers, but the market demand is so huge, so the corresponding prices are much higher.

The insufficient production capacity and high price of virtual devices are obstacles that limit people's experience of the virtual world.

Now, the news circulating is that Zhiyun Group is going to develop new entry-level virtual equipment and launch it into the market, which makes many people very much looking forward to it.

For example, many people who have some money but are not yet wealthy are thinking about getting one themselves if the price is not too outrageous...

I can’t afford a Yun VW worth 800,000 yuan, or I can’t bear to buy it, but if it’s a virtual device worth 300,000 or 400,000 yuan, I’ll buy it after gritting my teeth…

However, more attention is paid to the large number of investors who are interested in the virtual industry.

Among them, the most direct ones are the investors of virtual experience centers. If they want to open virtual experience centers to make money, the biggest obstacle is that the virtual equipment is too expensive.

With the cheapest device costing 800,000 yuan each, opening a virtual experience center with dozens of virtual devices would require an initial investment of 300 to 400 million yuan.

But if the price drops and you can buy a virtual machine for 300,000 or 400,000 yuan, then the investment cost will be greatly reduced.

In addition to the direct consumers of these two virtual devices, a large number of practitioners in the virtual industry are also paying close attention.

The person in charge of the virtual world project under Google expressed great expectations for Zhiyun Group's new generation of entry-level virtual equipment when interviewed by the media.

"We have completed the initial development of the virtual game 'Poseidon's Fury' and are currently conducting large-scale internal testing. Believe me, this is not only the first large-scale virtual world project in the United States, but also the first large-scale virtual world project outside of China."

"The virtual world we developed based on the Greek mythology system is more in line with the cultural needs of the United States and Europe. In our newly created virtual world, people can experience rich and unique virtual content!"

"If the new generation of Yun VW can be cheaper, it will lower the barrier to entry into the virtual world. This is undoubtedly a good thing, allowing more people to experience our virtual games!"

The person in charge of Facebook's virtual project also said: The virtual social world we created has completed the large-scale development stage and is currently undergoing invitation testing. This virtual social world allows people to do most of the things they do in reality. People don't have to go out, they can communicate face to face with their friends in the virtual world, and experience many unique things that are impossible in the real world! "

Although the current virtual industry is still in its infancy, its strong ability to attract money and greater potential in the future have attracted a large number of companies around the world to participate in it.

In the hardware field, major high-tech companies are trying to develop their own virtual devices. Among them, Apple is the most radical and determined.

In June of this year, Apple officially announced that it expects to invest at least 30 billion US dollars in the next few years to develop its own virtual equipment!

At the same time, Google and Facebook, two Internet companies, also have relatively large ambitions for virtual devices, especially Google. They have accumulated relatively good experience in the field of artificial intelligence, and the motion system of VR omnidirectional virtual devices is closely related to artificial intelligence technology.

In addition, Sixin also announced its entry into the virtual equipment industry. However, in addition to trying to develop its own virtual equipment, they are more focused on the supporting industrial chain of virtual equipment, such as developing ultra-high-performance VR glasses screens, chips and other spare parts.

Their foundation in artificial intelligence technology is too poor, and it is not reliable to directly produce virtual equipment products, so they chose to enter the core spare parts industry chain. They have a certain degree of confidence in this regard, and it is also very profitable.

Some domestic companies also want to develop virtual equipment, especially several other large Internet companies besides Yihai Technology. They also have good technical accumulation in artificial intelligence technology... and also want to enter the virtual equipment industry.

However, none of the above-mentioned companies that want to develop virtual device hardware dare to say that they can do it in just a few years.

The technical difficulty is too great!

Needless to say, the technical limitations in the field of artificial intelligence are the biggest technical challenge... How to make the system recognize and predict the user's movements, and then provide feedback in the virtual space and on the omnidirectional treadmill, this is an extremely huge technical challenge.

Then comes the simpler hardware!

The hardware aspect is a little simpler, but still very difficult... Of course, most of the spare parts can actually be found.

In Zhiyun Group's virtual devices, the core components are numerous semiconductor chip products. Among these chip products, except for the ZY series chips which are not supplied to the outside, other APO graphics cards, WZ server chips and other high-performance chips are actually supplied to the outside.

Even if it is fruit, you can purchase a complete set of chips used in many virtual devices except ZY34/38 chips.

In areas such as screens, Huaxing Technology stated that their production capacity is gradually increasing, and interested manufacturers can also order their high-performance VR screens.

Many other things such as motors and lidars can actually be purchased.

Theoretically, other manufacturers can solve most of the hardware supply problems by relying on the virtual equipment supply chain previously developed by Zhiyun Group.

But it only solves part of the problem!

For example, the very core ZY series chips, which Zhiyun Group does not sell to the outside world!
At the same time, although the outside world can see this ZY series chip in many terminal products, people's understanding of this chip is still very limited... They only know that it is a big data processing chip used in conjunction with computing power chips. But if you want to understand it specifically in the field of chip design, it is very difficult.

And this is not an ordinary small chip, but a large chip with tens of billions of transistors, which is extremely difficult to design.

Intel has tried to develop similar big data processing chips before, but ultimately failed...it was too difficult to develop and there was no market demand!
Globally, apart from Zhiyun Group and a few sister companies' medium and large-scale artificial intelligence terminals that need this chip, there is no other market demand.

This chip is specially developed for medium and large artificial intelligence terminals. It is designed to be used with Zhiyun Group's computing power cards, namely APO graphics cards and EYQ general-purpose terminal computing power chips. It is of no use in other fields.

The development was too difficult and the market demand was low, so Intel finally gave up.

Now that virtual devices have come out, and many overseas car companies are also promoting smart electric vehicles and want to develop their own L3 or even L4 autonomous driving, there is a demand for this type of chip... but the problem is that they can't develop it.

They don’t even know how the ZY series chips work with the APO series chips/EYQ series chips... How do they design chips?
The Yun VW virtual machine also contains some similar key components, which are developed by Zhiyun Group itself and not sold externally.

If other companies want to develop virtual equipment, they have to first conquer these core components one by one, which is not so easy.

From software to hardware, virtual devices are not easy to make... But if it's not easy, then we can't just do it? That's definitely not the right thing to do. We have to do it!

The virtual age has arrived, and no one wants to be completely abandoned in the virtual age.

In addition to many large companies that want to manufacture virtual devices and directly enter the hardware field, more companies, especially Internet companies, are striving to develop the content of the virtual world.

Whether it is domestic or foreign Internet companies, the most popular word now is virtual content. Whether it is virtual games, virtual social spaces or any other virtual content, there are people doing it.

These virtual content practitioners are also the ones who most expect Zhiyun Group to launch cheaper virtual devices.

After all, virtual equipment is cheaper, more people will buy it, and more people will be able to enter the virtual world to experience it. In this way, the virtual content industry can attract more users and consumers, and generate greater virtual content profits.

So when Zhiyun Group officially announced that it would hold a new generation of virtual equipment launch conference on July 6, many practitioners were paying close attention.

On July 6, Zhiyun Group officially held a virtual equipment launch conference at Qianshan International Conference Center.

The press conference was not hosted by Xu Shenxue himself, but by Ji Chenghe, senior vice president of Zhiyun Group.

At the press conference, Ji Chenghe officially announced the new generation of Yun VW.

The biggest change in the new generation of Yun VW is the addition of a new sitting posture movement system... With a high-performance robotic arm as the hardware core, it can provide users with a seat that can be retracted and extended freely.

It seems to be just to provide a seat for the user, but the technology here is not simple, because this is under the premise of not affecting the user's free movement on the omnidirectional treadmill. When the system recognizes the user's intention to sit down, it will provide a seat for the user at the first time. At the same time, when the user gets up and does not ride and moves freely, the robotic arm needs to be retracted in time.

This is easy to say, but actually very difficult to do…especially when it comes to accurately identifying the user’s intent.

This also involves artificial intelligence technology...which requires identification, analysis, and decision-making based on data.

On the contrary, the hardware of the robotic arm itself is not a problem.

The newly released Yun VW virtual machine is divided into four models.

The new flagship version is priced at 5000 million yuan and is equipped with four APO38 graphics cards and a ZY chip, as well as a robotic arm sitting system.

The deluxe version is priced at 5000 million and is equipped with two APO38 graphics cards and a ZY chip, and is also equipped with a robotic arm sitting system.

In fact, except for the sitting robotic arm, the core hardware performance of the above two models is no different from the previously released high-end version and flagship version, but there are still some differences in design.

After half a year of large-scale production and use, and after collecting user feedback, Zhiyun Group's technology R&D department also made targeted improvements to some of the problems exposed.

In addition, Ji Chenghe also announced at the press conference that he would provide optional robotic arm sitting system modification services for the three versions of the previous generation of virtual machine equipment. Of course, this will be charged, and it is not cheap.

But at least it provides an option for previous users...

It was also announced that users who have already ordered older generation virtual devices but whose production queues are after July, that is, whose orders have not yet been produced, will be provided with the option to exchange them for new generation virtual machine devices of the same level... Of course, they will have to pay the price difference.

If you don't want to exchange, we will continue to produce and ship the old model.

There are also two slightly cheaper versions!
Including the high-end version equipped with four APO4500 graphics cards, the price reaches yuan. It comes standard with a backpack-style sitting system, but a robotic arm sitting system can be optionally installed for an additional fee.

The new entry-level model is priced at RMB 4500 and is equipped with two APO34 graphics cards and a single chip. Other hardware configurations have been reduced. A soft backpack-style sitting system is standard, and a robotic arm sitting system can also be purchased at an additional cost.

At this time, the audience and netizens discovered that the virtual device released in July did not have a version with the APO4600 graphics card...

This is because the 3D packaging capacity of Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Group, is insufficient. At the same time, as the production capacity of the seven-nanometer process continues to increase, Zhiyun Group has officially decided to gradually stop production of APO4600 graphics cards and use the 3D packaging capacity as much as possible for the more advanced, more expensive, and more profitable APO5000 graphics cards.

Since June, Zhiyun Group has stopped accepting orders for APO4600 graphics cards. Existing orders will continue to be produced until the end of the year. After the delivery of existing orders is completed, the production of APO4600 graphics cards will be completely discontinued next year.

Based on this, there is no APO4600 graphics card version in Zhiyun Group's new generation of virtual machines, but it is replaced by four APO4500 graphics cards with lower performance!

Although the computing power of a single APO4500 graphics card is not as good as that of APO4600, using four APO4500 graphics cards together is much stronger than using two APO4600 graphics cards...but the power consumption is slightly increased.

But for something like virtual devices, electricity costs are nothing compared to performance... Only large companies engaged in artificial intelligence training will attach such great importance to the power consumption of graphics cards and the computing power costs.

In addition, the differences among these four versions are not only in the APO series graphics cards, but also in the ZY series chips. The two high-priced versions use the ZY38 chip, while the two low-priced versions use the ZY34 chip. In addition, there are differences in hardware in many aspects such as server CPU, memory chip, storage chip, sensor, universal treadmill, etc.

Although people may not feel the performance differences of many hardware, or may not feel them obviously, the top-level components of high-end models and the components used in entry-level models worth more than 400,000 yuan are two different things.

It is impossible for Zhiyun Group to replace the flagship version of the machine worth more than three million with an APO4500 graphics card and sell it for only a few hundred thousand... It would be a huge loss to do so.

Judging from the pricing of the above four new models, it can actually be seen that Zhiyun Group does not actually plan to sell many virtual machines using APO5000 graphics cards. This thing is too expensive, and the production capacity of APO5000 graphics cards is too tight.

The ones that are really intended to be sold in large quantities are the dual-card version and quad-card version that use the APO4500 graphics card, especially the dual-card version!
The price of 450,000 is quite cheap compared to the previous entry-level version priced at 800,000... This is of great value in expanding market capacity.

Not long after the press conference ended, related news made headlines around the world, especially on the Internet.

At twelve o'clock in the evening, the pre-order page for the new generation of virtual equipment was officially opened on Zhiyun Group's official website.

The pre-order amount for the first batch of virtual devices released for the domestic market totaled 50,000 units, and they were sold out in half an hour.

In the domestic market alone, the first batch of 30,000 pre-orders were sold out, which scared a large group of people again.

When did there become so many wealthy people in China? You should know that among the 30,000 pre-order orders, 20,000 of them are high-end, luxury and flagship versions, and there are only 10,000 entry-level versions of 450,000.

This price is very expensive!

It was impossible for 30,000 new Hailan cars to be sold out within half an hour...but 30,000 large toys for playing virtual games were sold out within half an hour!
After seeing this, many people felt that either they were crazy or the world was crazy!

The fact is, no one is crazy, it’s just that times have changed!
Now is the virtual age!

(End of this chapter)