Interview: Lenovo on building AR/VR devices for the enterprise, the hype about metaverse, and extra

Vishal Shah, who leads XR and Metaverse domains at Lenovo, has a job that calls for him and his group to appear previous the smartphone revolution and lay the groundwork for the subsequent huge issue in tech: a headset that blends the digital globe with the true a single.

Even though Lenovo is nonetheless a huge player in the smartphone market place with its subsidiary Motorola, the Computer giant has been speeding its efforts to jump onto augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) spaces to have a competitive benefit when the category develops in the future. As Lenovo’s GM of XR and Metaverse, Shah leads the ThinkReality Options group and aids build XR devices aimed at the enterprise market place.

For the world’s most significant Computer maker by volume and market place share, Lenovo’s concentrate on the enterprise more than mainstream buyers with its AR and VR items and options may perhaps appear out-of-the-location when its competitors, which includes Meta and Sony, are squarely focusing on mainstream customers by way of its devices. For Shah, Lenovo going soon after enterprise buyers with its extended reality (XR) devices and software program options is a sensible move.

Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 is a pair of sensible AR glasses. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

“If I have a piece of machinery that is worth $200 million of output each and every day spending $three,000 on a platform that aids me repair it proper away is peanuts… the ROI is just there,” Shah explains why ROI, the use instances, and the return of investment are the items that make XR reality operate finest in the case of the enterprise for now.

Shah cites that the purpose why enterprise buyers are investing in these AR/VR devices is that they see worth in them even if the expense of the headset hovers north of $1500. The headsets that corporations like Lenovo sell to enterprise customers not only supply extra options but are also complex to manufacture. “I think that XR is a single of the couple of technologies exactly where the enterprise is going to lead 1st and essentially drive the rates down for buyers, which has been the opposite in the case of smartphones,” he told indianexpress.com in an interview on the sidelines of the India edition of Lenovo Tech Globe in New Delhi final week.

Lenovo’s lack of interest in releasing virtual or augmented reality devices for buyers could be due to a lack of a compelling use case. Corporations like Magic Leap, Sony, and Meta promised game-altering headsets but no a single succeeded in supplying the immersive expertise they initially promised. Worldwide shipments of VR headsets, as nicely as augmented reality device sales, declined by 12 per cent final year, according to IDC information.

The reality is that customer headsets are extremely subsidised by the platform holders with a concentrate mostly on gaming with no single-use case that provides buyers a compelling purpose to commit $500 on a single. Shah calls the lack of a “ChatGPT moment” why the customer adoption of AR/VR headsets has been low. According to Shah, till the rates of headsets will not come up drastically and kind variables boost, it will be a challenge to sell a solution that blends the physical and virtual worlds in the hands of lots of customers.

Primarily based in California, Shah leads Lenovo’s XR and Metaverse domains. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Shah agrees that the customer AR/VR market place has been “difficult”, but he hopes to see a shift driven by the use instances tailored for B2B 1st which will be later adapted for buyers. “We [Lenovo] do not have the proper ecosystem to operate with the customer market place,” he stated, adding that the enterprise performs with its partners who are sturdy in the enterprise market place and that is exactly where the applicability of XR devices start off producing extra sense in the well being and education spaces.

A year ago, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dropped Facebook as his company’s name and shifted concentrate on constructing the Metaverse, a idea exactly where the on the net, virtual, and true worlds blend to build a new universe. He and lots of in the business think that the metaverse could usher in the starting of the subsequent frontier in the tech landscape.

“We have been victims and beneficiaries to a particular extent,” Shah stated when asked about the hype that has been constructing about the metaverse, which he describes as the evolution of the Online from 2D to 3D.

“A lot of people today have a incredibly dystopian view of what the metaverse is. We’ll be spending eight to ten hours a day in the metaverse. But to me, I really feel that the metaverse, in particular the enterprise a single, in lots of techniques is some thing that you use for a 30-minute education session or a a single-hour meeting,” Shah stated. He added: “I do not assume walking on the beach can ever be replaced and I also do not assume the physical can replace the digital or digital can replace the physical, but you can generally make digital processes extra effective.”

The ThinkReality A3 glasses are optimised for applications like 3D visualisation and augmented reality-guided workflows. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

For Shah, the most significant influence the Metaverse will have is how they train people today and the jump from 2D to 3D will be enormous. “The Metaverse is going to be heavily influenced by the enterprise,” Shah predicted, adding that it is going to be a extra B2B-focused play.

Even although Shah strongly believes that AR/VR is the “interface” of the future, smartphones will not fade away overnight. “I would never ever create the smartphone off absolutely but there’ll be extra and extra ambient devices.”

Calling smartphones a “sticky” device, he stated they will evolve in the future and will continue to be a central communication tool. He added that even if ambient devices, be it smartwatches and sensible glasses, would develop into smaller sized in size, the computing will nonetheless occur on the smartphone. “In the finish, if you want to get rid of the smartphone, it is up to the user,” he stated.

Shah foresees that the kind aspect of smartphones will either alter or else take the shape of ambient devices in the close to future.

Extended reality (XR) technologies, the term that covers augmented, virtual, and mixed reality, is predicted to transform lots of industries. As Shah puts it, every single technologies has a unique use case but he stated ultimately each AR and VR will merge at some point in the future. AR is described as a technologies that superimposes computer system-generated photos more than views of the true globe, whereas virtual reality, or VR, which absolutely immerses the viewer in a computer system-generated globe. Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3, for instance, is a pair of sensible AR glasses which when connected to a computer system or smartphone, show as lots of as 5 unique virtual desktops, thanks to its higher-definition displays constructed into the lenses. The glasses retail for $1500 and are aimed at the enterprise market place.

Shah agrees the present-generation AR/VR devices require to get lighter and a lot extra user-friendly to develop into mass-market place items. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

But the transition from smartphones to AR/VR headsets may perhaps not be simple, provided the set of challenges these devices come up with, which includes the higher-retail value. Shah stated AR/VR headsets will have a related journey as smartphones had been obtainable at unique value points and sub-divided into a number of solution tiers evenly distributed involving customer and enterprise categories.

As AR/VR headset hardware continues to boost and lower in value, the expense of making the device will ultimately come down.  “We’ve matured a lot in the final 5 years in terms of technologies. AR devices have come down to 130 grams becoming incredibly lightweight, when VR devices are finding exceptionally compact, which is probable due to pancake lenses that themselves are finding substantially thinner.”

But Shah agrees that the business is nonetheless far away from reaching the smartphone scale which is necessary to bring AR/VR headsets to as lots of buyers as probable. “We’re finding there but not there however,” he stated. “In order to do that the optics, the battery life and the chipsets that need low energy but provide lengthy battery will have to truly start off coming,” Shah responded when asked about the challenges that hinder the improvement of AR/VR headsets and ultimately slowing the rollout of these devices.

“Managing the provide chain for devices, and finding the proper type of optics provider and vendors to be in a position to build these devices is a huge challenge,” he added.

But building a smartphone and an XR headset calls for a unique mindset and with each other unique talent sets and knowledge. Not just the hardware but software program and solutions on top rated of it are also equally significant to get the device to operate the way it is intended to. Shah stated like what has occurred in the case of smartphones, the hardware will get commoditised with everybody employing the very same chipset that goes inside the headset. For him, although, the most significant distinction will be the user interface which will be the huge differentiator when purchasing a headset.  “A lot of people today attempt to use VR devices in order to watch Netflix films. I assume that is a horrible use case, no a single desires to be stuck for 3 hours in that situation,” he stated.

Shah believes the interface alongside the ecosystem is exactly where the battle will be fought.

Lenovo is betting on enterprise metaverse, as it will bring extra customers to AR/VR devices and enable construct use instances. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Lenovo is backing OpenXR, the common meant to make cross-platform AR and VR apps extra widespread. The notion is to present developers with a way to construct a single app that can run on several devices across a number of devices alternatively of getting to build distinct versions for every single a single. But exactly where Shah thinks the AR/VR space may well be unique from how the smartphone generation panned out is the manage the brand like Lenovo has on its solution. “The purpose why AR/VR has not scaled is that if a enterprise would like to purchase a piece of hardware, it either buys software program from somebody else or does it itself. They attempt to bundle every little thing with each other and fail,” he reasoned.

To build extra manage more than its XR items, Lenovo has designed ThinkReality, the company’s AR/VR platform, which Shah calls an finish-to-finish option. It is enterprise-grade, scalable, and safe. On top rated of that, Lenovo also provides specialist solutions to corporations like Tata Elxsi, Wipro, Accenture, and Deloitte assisting them with the cloud infrastructure and converting 2D information to 3D information in the workflow.

Practically 16 years given that the 1st iPhone was released, the smartphone revolution that followed changed the tech business. But the war involving Google and Apple has also choked innovation, leaving the energy in the hands of a couple of corporations.

“If you appear at net two., I assume a single of the limiting variables is that it just falls into two or 3 camps and all the innovation either gets sucked out or you are quite substantially relying on them for innovation,” he explained.

No matter how hyped the metaverse has been created, Shah stated the time is proper to take Net two. to three.. “For the metaverse to succeed, it should really be decentralised, it should really be open and it should really be interoperable.”