Facebook buys Oculus Rift

Facebook's acquisition of Oculus Rift has been a conversation for countless people over the past one months, but only Fred Wilson's comments impressed me, especially the following:

Moving is a goal that everyone has been chasing, but now it is a past. All tech are actively looking for the next platform, and no one is willing to miss
"It" ... So they will not hesitate to drop heavily to gain a favorable position in the next round of competition, even if only a possible vantage point. Virtual reality, Internet of things, drones, artificial intelligence or whatever else will be the next platform is not clear at present. Larry
I don't know, Zuckerberg don't know, I don't know. So the current competition theme is "looking".

I do not want to write anything for the acquisition event itself, but the reason and revelation that virtual reality may become the next big thing is often a reflection on me. Fred did not analyze the root cause of the upcoming race, but mentioned the expensive price it could cause. But I think this is really worth examining, because the virtual reality technology not only has the potential to surpass the ingenious role that is currently applied only to gaming and other entertainment functions, but also to be the next generation computing platform, because once this wave comes in-and of course I agree with Fred that all is still an unknown view, The form of interaction between us and computers also faces upheaval. It is this interactive form of change that makes virtual reality an interesting business topic, because it will inevitably lead to the rise of a new wave of subversion and the downfall of another group of incumbents. You could say that Facebook put Oculus into the bag probably because they didn't want to be the Conservatives who were overthrown and destroyed by the new wave.

The current maturity of "virtual reality" technology and the implication behind the term is too limited to the function of environmental simulations, making it hard to imagine that this would be a form of computation. I personally prefer to use the term "immersive computing" because immersion (immersiveness) does not necessarily correspond to simulations (verisimilitude). In the future, we'll see a lot of new applications that use immersive experiences to bring more efficient operations and data processing to functions outside of the game.

Historically This example is not far away from us, please refer to the rise of mobile. This powerful trend has shifted computing centers from PCs to smart mobile terminals. The alternation of desktop computing to mobile computing is not just a change in size, it leads to the emergence of a new interactive interface, which replaces the interactive interface with touch, full screen and gesture, which is computed by the dialog box, "Point" and "click", Mouse and keyboard. The handover seems to have "reset" the entire computer industry, with new players pouring in to tailor updated operating systems, applications, device terminals and services for the mobile platform and the new interactive approach it represents. Meanwhile, old players who have been successful in the PC era are clinging to past glories and refusing to let go.

The reason that VR or immersive computing is so fascinating is that it is possible to subvert the current mobile platform in the same way. None of the leading companies, such as Google, Apple and Samsung, have a significant advantage in this new area, just as the traditional giants such as Microsoft, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, who swept the market in the first place, have no advantage in mobile computing. And just as smartphones are not compact desktops, VR does not become a headset, and it will be a completely new way of interacting with the immersive experience.

For Facebook, which has come to an edge in mobile, the fact that the virtual reality that has not yet made its fortune shows that they are aware that "the success of the old days does not guarantee the competitive advantage of the new era". The acquisition of Oculus Rift is a way for Facebook to try to adjust its course for the future, but even if the right direction is found, it cannot be a ticket for success. Traditional technology is often difficult to turn around in the face of new trends, because the entrenched advantages of the old stage make it difficult for them to adjust for the new era, or even to be aware of the advent of a new era. Microsoft had entered the mobile market early with a Pocket PC, but eventually changed the market to Apple, which redefined smartphone interaction with the iPhone because of layers of wrong decisions, and Google, which used Android to quickly build another strong mobile ecosystem without being eliminated.

I'm not advocating that VR devices are going to replace smartphones, or smartphones will no longer be important. The portability of mobile devices determines that it is not easy to fade out of people's lives, and the advantage is that there is a very high security in the use of the environment of VR head-wearing equipment will never have. Just as today's desktop computing coexists with mobile computing, if the VR has the day of its rise, it will coexist with the mobile platform. Both play a role in their respective fields, of course, there must be overlap between the use of the scene.

What I'm trying to say is that a new way of interacting with an experience and a new application is difficult to sketch out of the imagination before you see it, but you'll find it so real and natural that you can't imagine what the world would be without it. It's hard to say that in these early stages of technology, those technologies will bring new a new era of stimulation, but I imagine that being able to add value to some data (such as providing visual tools for large data) and new experiences (such as shopping or gaming) is at least a relatively reliable option. I do not know the future direction of this immersive computing technology is there, but if it can be developed it will create a new language of interactive behavior.