Somnium is a Czech startup previously solely focused on its social VR platform Somnium Space. But in late 2021 it announced the Somnium VR1 headset with a monster spec sheet for the time, in partnership with VRgineers - known for its ultra-high end XTAL headsets for enterprise. Originally Somnium VR1 was pitched as a hybrid headset with standalone capabilities via an onboard Snapdragon XR2 chipset, but that idea was ditched in 2022 to focus on making it a solely PC VR headset instead.
Nice. €1900 to €3990
I’m confused as to why we are not seeing VR prices going down relative to feature set… Specs are going up, but prices are going up to match them. Has the technology really stagnated like that?
Why aren’t we seeing an ~$800 headset representing an upgrade from something like a Valve Index ($500 at launch)? Why are the only across-the-board upgrades 4x-6x the price?
Volume.
VR isn’t big enough to sell enough at the high end for the scale to kick in and bring prices down.
Even at the budget end, Meta sells the Quest at a loss afaik.
And unlike with other devices, like phones, the tech isn’t advancing in a way where older devices go obsolete. If you got a CV1, you could still be using it and not really be missing out on that much.
All that adds up to HMDs selling very slowly. The people who wanted one, already have one, and it’s probably “ok” which means unless you provide a proper upgrade at a sane price, they’ll just stick with what they have. It becomes both really hard to find new VR users, and to sell upgrades to existing ones.
General consensus appears to be that the Somnium headsets are terrible value at these prices and the hype train has derailed. Anyone actually interested in buying one of these?
Just hoping the Pico 4s release doesn’t disappoint now
