Virtual reality is next as smartphone sales slow
Phone makers, trying to renew consumer appetite, are turning to virtual reality headsets that can be paired with their devices to view videos and play games.
“With a slowing smartphone market, one of the ways to generate additional profit is to become a major player in new categories like smartwatches, cameras or virtual reality goggles,” said Ian Fogg, head of mobile at research firm IHS.
“These are markets where there is not yet a leader so there is a lot more room for growth,” he told AFP.
Samsung, the world’s number one smartphone maker, announced at the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona that it would give away its Gear VR headset for free with every pre-order for its new flagship Galaxy S7 phone.
Thousands of people donned the headsets — which have a slot where you insert a smartphone — to view the presentation of the firm’s new phones at a Barcelona congress centre on the eve of the start of the fair.
The crowd gasped and applauded as the new phones appeared to be floating in the air before their eyes.
When they removed their headsets they saw that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had made a surprise appearance at the presentation.
– Saturated smartphone market –
The headsets — which went on sale in November — are powered by technology developed by Oculus, a virtual reality company Facebook bought in 2014 for $2 billion (1.8 billion euros).
“VR is the next platform where anyone can experience anything they want,” he said.
Rival South Korean tech firm LG, which lost money from its mobile business last year, unveiled its own virtual reality goggles to go with its new G5 smartphone at the fair.
“If this does not tell you the industry is moving to virtual reality, I don’t know what does,” said Jefferson Wang, senior partner at IBB Consulting that focuses on the wireless and tech sectors.
The emphasis on virtual reality comes as the increasingly-saturated smartphone market begins to slow.
Research firm TrendForce predicts global smartphone sales will grow by 8.1 percent in 2016, down from 10.3 percent last year.
Struggling Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has decided to refocus completely on virtual reality and away from smartphones.
“Yes, smartphones are important, but to create a natural extension to other connected devices like wearables (watches…) and virtual reality is more important,” the company’s new chief executive Cher Wang said last month in an interview with Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper.
The smartphone virtual reality headsets sparked huge interest at the trade fair in Barcelona, which ends on Thursday.
Long lines formed outside a pop-up virtual reality theatre set up by Samsung that allowed people to experience a roller coaster ride using the Gear VR headset as their seats rocked from side to side.
Tilt your head back with the headset on and you see a clear blue sky. Turn sideways and you see the rest of an amusement park and mountains in the distance. Look down and you see a fast approaching plunge.
People gripped the arms of their seats even though they were not moving and raised their hands in the air during the simulations.
– ‘Here to stay’ –
Research firm CCS Insight predicts the number of sold virtual reality devices will grow from 2.2 million last year to 20 million in 2018, with smartphone-based devices representing the vast majority.
“Smartphone virtual reality is poised to be the big volume driver for virtual reality in coming years,” the company’s chief of research, Ben Wood, told AFP.
More sophisticated virtual reality headsets that run on an expensive computer will remain a niche product because of their high cost, he added.
Some users of the smartphone virtual reality headsets complained of being able to see the pixels in the images being broadcast.
“The quality of the systems is not quite there yet,” said Edward Tang, founder and president of Avegant which makes virtual reality headsets.
“But there is no doubt virtual reality is here to stay.”
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58 Comments
Me, I am from Russia
When archeologists have confirm that human life started in Africa I wonder where all this crap are coming from
Don’t mind them. People have become so self-defeated and deflated that the their only path to greatness is to look for a more progressive nation and claim that as their place of origin. Is Israel any bigger than Igbo land or aren’t the Ijebus big enough to make a statement?
… talking of about five centuries ago? Our women and men now resort to wearing foreign hair, bleach and have sex with animals. Soon, there will be a gene jump creating animen/aniwomen just like the fallen angels in the bible had sex with earth women to form giant women and men.
These are the kind of things that make us Africans look like a bunch of idiots…
Why do we find the need to want to be Jews…? We want to be anything but ourselves because we have failed as race and some idiot wannabe researchers would point to links like…………… the Jew fart through their backsides like us so we are Jews! Hoo-ray!
Idiots….
Ijebu Jews,Ibo-Jews, These people will not stop hallucinating.Vey soon we will have Fulani Jews.
It takes less faith to believe in that than it takes to believe the ‘descended down to earth from heaven on a ladder’ story.
You are correct. Just like we have the Ibos who claim out of the usual Ibo greed to have come from Israel.
Very funny people.
The black man is indeed sick
Well, the Igbo does not need you to tells us where we come from nor who we are! To be Igbo is the best thing that could happen to any human being. It instantly puts you above all black race, if not above the human race in totality! Take a good look at the cultures of both people and see if there is any difference.
You have no proof other envy and stereotypical disposition to show that Igbos are greedier than any other set of Nigerians. Are you talking of greed for political power, economic power, academic power, cultural power? How do you measure greed? Be specific.
If people envy the ibos over their poverty striken ,erosion infested land, I wonder what word should be used to describe how people will treat the developed countries and races of the world.
In the first republic when there was not oil and each region developed at its own pace, the ibo enclave was not better than the north in terms of physical development.
The only place with a semblance of modernity was the Yoruba south west.
Even after the war till now.
So why will anyone envy the ibos . The problem is when a race has been so accustomed to poverty . They feel envied when they go out of their enclave.
All the devastations that you mentioned in the SE are correct. But those are the responsibilities of a Federal government that shirks its responsibilities. You are indicting your Nigerian government that fails to live upto its responsibilities. That is why people in the SE and some part of SS have started looking somewhere else. The individuals are on top of their game. The best private homes can be found in the SE. The latest WASCE results showed that the SE bested every other region (It has been like that for more than 15 years). It also showed that regions closer to the SE performed better than those father from the SE. The SE has the highest human development index in Nigeria. You can easily see how this forum is dominated by posters of the SE origin. It is also a measure of literacy. Look at Nollywood, it is the crown jewel of Nigeria. Go to other African countries, no one watches western movies anymore. In Tanzania, they even try to talk and walk like Nigerians. I got this information from the number one newspaper in America, the New York Times. Google “Nigeria’s Booming Film Industry Redefines African Life”. It was not untill the Igbos got involved with movie making that it actually took off. Herbert Ogunde had been doing his little thing in Yoruba forever but no one besides his Yoruba people took notice.
So the bottom line is that you cannot define what yardstick you use in measuring ‘greedy’. Being hyper competitive cannot be equated to being greedy. And to be honest with you, some dose of greed is necessary for capitalism to thrive. Go to the US and see what people do to succeed (make money).
The first write-up of an Ibo that presented his views without the usual standard Ibo insults. I do agree that my choice of the word “greed” might be misplaced and wrong.
But the drawback in your post is that you argue from a biased postion.You have successfully alloyed your personal opinion with facts so as to introduce confusion and ambiguity to the subject matter for any dull mind to believe your assertions.
My focus is the misplaced poverty induced thinking that someone somewhere envies the Ibo.
Any rational mind knows that envy is only directed towards a phenomenon or person whose enviable attributes dwarfs that of the person that envies.
Its like the American saying they are envied by the English.
All the good qualities and supposed prowess of the Ibo are good and every man has the right to sing his own praises no matter how jaundiced they are.
I have lived and worked in the East for years and know your place well.
How will a people who already had some form of modernization even when there was no Oil in Nigeria envy the Ibos.
With due respect I wouldn’t know how old you were in the 50s and 60s , you Ibo guys were still toiling for subsistence then while the Yorubas were already even Ahead of Egypt.
Lets even talk of mundane issues. Is it not laughable that the west which already had film theaters in Ibadan and Lagos when Opkara the then SE premier was still battling to feed the Ibos would be envious of the Ibos?
Without diminishing the struggling spirit of the Ibos which of course is motivated by the extreme poverty at home in the East, I can tell you first hand what happens in East Africa as per Nigerians and Nigerian movies.
Your brothers have really dented the image of Nigerians there not because crime commission is limited to the Ibos alone as Nigerians but because of the mentality of “I have made money” and people are envious of me.
On the streets of Kampala, Nigerians are deeply hated because of the way the Ibo boys increase the volume of their car stereo when driving and bragging.
in broad daylight in a remote town called sanfonia in Conakry the capital of Guinea in 2009, Nigerians were being lynched on the street because some locals insisted that one Ibo boy turned a Fula girl to a tuber of yam for money ritual
No one knew the veracity of the claim. but many Nigerians had been burnt to death before the Police was able to restore calm.
Go to Freetown in sierra Leone, The yorubas and Hausas had been living there in peace with the locals, but after war in sierra Leone , the Ibos came into the country and destroyed all the goodwill Nigerians had there. Now the locals will first ask you whether you are Ibo before they transact business with you.
Zimbabwe and south Africa is another case of the Ibos tarnishing the image of Nigerians.
Indeed can anyone really envy the Ibos with these credentials?
I cannot guess your background correctly but Igbos become hostile when people from the SW ignore verifiable data right under their noses to dwell in innuendo. Yes education got the SW first but the first indigenous Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan was not a Yoruba man. He was an Igbo man by name Kenneth Onwika Dike. The same people that brought education to the SW also brought education to the SE. The reality today is that while SW states are now competing with the Far North states at the bottom, the SE is consolidating it pre-eminent position at the top as the most literate region in Nigeria. We can not control where the government decides to site national infrastructures but what we can control is producing the talents that can run those institutions. The only areas where the Igbos may be lagging behind are those areas where the Federal government picks winners and losers. But when it comes to the free private sector, there is no competition.
If you are as enlightened as I thought you were then you would not be bringing something like ‘turning someone into a tuber of yam’ to my attention. That in this day and age a young man believes that a human being has the power to turn another human being into a tuber of yam says much about your level of enlightenment. And that you somehow excused the lynchings of Nigerians for this is even more damning. I will not address the rest of your thrash. I have wasted my time. Bye
This generation has been fed with serious falsehood that it will be impossible to do logical reasoning with anyone outside his/her race
By reason of the hard nature of where they come from, the Igbos are tough and want to succeed at all cost.
I am an Ondo man and have no reason to hate any Igbo. Criminality is preponderant in all tribes in Nigeria , the only difference is the loud Igbo style which has made them object of attention everywhere.
The Pakistanis and Chinese in south Africa are the big boys in drugs business but we only hear of Nigerian Ibos daily because of the loud and arrogant manner they conduct their own thing.
The guy is hillucibnating from excessive ogogoro in his blood. There are arts of facts nor culture nor documental historical facts that links Ijebu or igbo to Judaism. There is a difference betweeen coming from Isral and being a Jew, christian or and muslim. I do not know why this newpaper is acting like tabloid newspaper.
and ijaw jews too……lo!
Yes true, Biblically the israelite were Black civilization even the Kuteb people of Taraba states are Jew that migrate along the coastline of egypt,sudan,cameroon into Nigeria during the war and transatlantic slave trade withing 1000AD to 1600AD and most settle along Cameroon and Taraba state.DNA research is the confirmation of most of this claims. Even the Ashanti tribe of Ghana are one of the lost tribe of the children of Israel scattered around the Earth
.
Late prof acholonu olumba the great historian of prehistoric antiquity and cosmology estimated the igbos to be 4 million years created during the beginning of a cycle of the gods in cosmology. That rhymes with an old indian cosmic cycle called yuga kalpa that started 4 million years ago . Suffice it of note that the mixing of black and white races in very ancient egypt produced arabs and jews also called semites a half caste race. Thus jews may derive from igbos,ijebu etc not the other way round
I love your analogy here Kester! We have to investigate numerous historical events that possibly displaced people. Four million years from today the migrants from Syria today into Germany will change the composition of whiteness in Germany. The huge difference is that we have evolved to keeping records today. Years ago there was none to actually validate this claims, but numerous studies highly justify its authenticity.
“Humans” have only been around 50,000 years. In four million years we will be extinct! Get your eras right!
It is possible. We even have Ijebu-Igbo. That could not have been a coincidence. I think we could still measure this by the cultural similarities. Igbos circumcise their new born males on the eight day after birth and others that strike some similarity with the Jewish tradition. Are these same with the Ijebus? If migration was from Saudi Arabia or Ethiopia as suggested by Olasupo, considering the locations of Igboland and Ijebu, it would have been clear that the migration route could have passed through Igboland in the east before extending to Ijebu land in the west.
The Igbo in Ijebu-Igbo is different from Igbo the tribe. The Igbo in Ijebu Igbo means “bush”. Im absolutely sure that Igbo, the tribe does not translate to “bush”. So your explanation is absolutely wrong.
He never said the two “igbos” were the same you dumb fcuk! No Igbo man will claim any relationship with a Yoruba! Read his post again!
Ewu. Your reply truly shows the kind of home you come from.
I even saw Oke-Eri. Remember the father of all Igbos Eri from which we got the names Aguleri, Umuleri, Nri etc. Now what does Oke-eri mean in Igbo; it means the Eri the male or the First born Eri in some Igbo language. I also know that the Ijebu Igbo are very hard working, shrewd and enterprising business people which makes others to jealous them just like the Igbo.
Please tell me where the Ondo people came from ? from Estonia .
yes Estonia
Authority is not Truth, remember! A story is not true simply because it comes from the mouth of an important person. The Earth is not flat because some renowned Astronomer says it is. Israel, as an entity, was created in 1948 after the 2nd World War. The Jews are Egyptians and the latter are Abyssinians or Ethiopians – wholly Black Africans! Seekers of truth should peruse Gerald Massey’s works on the Masseiana website, particularly Ancient Egypt Light of the World. The book “Who Are The Oka People? demonstrated that the Awka (Oka) people came from nowhere (softcopy of book available via email ). Autochthony or independent generation of human societies holds the key to understanding our origins. Let us recall that Matriarchy preceded Patriarchy, which accounts for the importance of the Sheba Queen. The primal human family comprised a mother, a child, and a virile male (not a father!). The concept of fatherhood came much later. Cheers!
You read your book well, passed your exams well, now go and be taught by the mystic silence which asks you, ”do you know enough of what you dont really know.”
DNA can prove it all. Rather than all these folktales, a scientist or group of such can take the path to prove the facts.
Queen Sheba’s supposed burial ground in Oke-Eri can be dug out and DNA samples retrieved – if still possible, and then compared with DNA of people from Ethiopia. The truth will com out.
mtchewwwwwwwwww
there is NO connection whatsoever btw d ibos n yorubas. we r poles apart in everytn. i thot yorubas fell down from d sky. u guys no longer like d ”sky” story. na wah o
Na d only part of the story you see be dat? Una go dey make noise hia, why then do we have Ibos living in Lagos if there is no connection? Some of you Ibos need to come to equity with your hearts and understand that there are great people and great idiots in each and every tribe – at the end of the day, my favourite Aunt was an Ibo woman married to a Yoruba man. Maybe you can try and adjust your reasoning a little along these lines…
It was just satire. Too bad it robs you the wrong way.
what is great in the Ibo race?
Is it the extreme poverty in the erosion prone Ibo land where 7 siblings sit round a bowl of Apku that is not sufficient even for one child?
At least their mother prepared the akpu! You yorobbers, your mother gives you money to buy food from filthy bukas. why do you think Igbo men do not fight to marry Yoruba women, but your women are fighting for us?
Me too. I thought that the ladder they used in making the journey from the sky to the earth is locked up somewhere inside the Ooni compound. LOL
hmmmmmmmmm cant stop laughing so ibo are from isreal right lolz
There is no mention of Igbos (easterners) in the article. oh Oduduwa is a slang word for big shit! (large faeces)
Oga Shukudi – take time o lol
Why do we need outsiders to validate our claims of ancestry?
hmmmm i tire for niger people oooo ijebu is now from jews like igbo people ooo i never read or see any black history since have been read about isrealite oooo what is the problem of african man self
Ijebu and Igbo are jews? Is that the reason why they both love money? Hope the Ijebus are not laying claim to the Jebusites in the bible? If this true What of Akarigbo of Remo and Ajalorun of Ijebu Mushin are they jews also? The duos are younger brothers of Olugbo who were autochthonous to Ile-Ife.The world started in Ile ife, garden of Eden was in Ile ife.
https://ifeooye.blogspot.com.ng/2011/07/ile-ife-biblical-garden-of-eden-was.html
Nigerians are sick just as the country is sick too. What does it matter where any tribe came from in our present economic crisis? How does any tribe’s ancestral descend add value or provide solution to the mess our country is in today? Why waste our time on irrelevant debate and argument instead of finding answers as to how to move Nigeria forward? The Jews and Israelis will never contribute anything to our ridiculed economy so shun this argument. The researcher was probably doing his assignment or whiling away boredom.
Your origin is very important. There is a tribe in Nigeria that you can trace their origin to gorilla, they know it, it is a big shame to them. Now, they are trying to trace their origin to somewhere else.If your father is a slave or Osu you can not lay claim to somethings .Origin is important.
So what difference would this discovery make? Will those people move back to their origins or stop being Nigerians? Slave and Osu has long been abolished in some places and christianity has also over-taken all of that.
Christianity has actually abolished that on paper but you will agree with me that the son of a slave can never become a king ditto the son of an osu. Your origin is vital to whatever you want to become. You need to get it clear that I do not subscribe to the idea of somebody coming from Jews when the origin of human race is traced to Africa.
These are the kind of things that make us Africans look like a bunch of idiots…
Why do we find the need to want to be Jews…? We want to be anything but ourselves because we have failed as race and some idiot wannabe researchers would point to links like…………… the Jew fart through their backsides like us so we are Jews! Hoo-ray!
Idiots….
This man is a drunk, typical Yoruba tribalism, Ijebu- Jewish connection is uncontroversial in his word but the real Hebrew people who are Igbos have controversy.
Any time yoruba man writes, he must attack Igbo, listen to the man write up, Igbo this, Igbo that, we Igbo speaking people of Biafra dont care if yoruba jumb down from heaven, or Jesus is the father of yoruba, all we want is Biafra to separate our selves from people of baal.
But can you honestly say you Ibo people don’t abuse the yorubas ? Have you ever showed gratitude to the yorubas?
You are very ungrateful species. I can still remember the number of Okoros that my brothers hid under the bed in Lagos each time the Hausa soldiers came to raid and look for Ibos during the war.
I still remember Mr. chikere.
Same thing your fathers did during the first republic, your generation is repeating .
In the heart of every Yoruba person, we want you to go to your Biafra, but help or support will not come from any Yoruba person no matter how lowly or highly placed.
If the Hausas grant you freedom, good for you. If not we shall continue to stay in this mad house called Nigeria
No they won’t! They the whites will not come to honer her death bed. They will come to destroy her Body, then put a white body in her place then they will destroy the Ijebu Jews,Ibo-Jews, and turn everything Up side down.They like to tell no one they spent 2,000 years in the caves Amalgamating.Everything came from Darkness. They stole there story about life and THE ALL MIGHTY CREATOR.DID NOT HAVE A SON ALLAH is not of this creation.There is Man.Then there is Man kind.
.Ahsalaam Alaikum
Lol. Who knows. One thing Jews, Ibos and Ijebu have in common though is love for cabadash. The sights and sounds of Ebe can raise their antenna like the ears of a dog sharp sharp
Victor, you must be a big time humorist. Going by your last name, you are probably from Edo. If that is correct, your antenna also operates like those of “Ibos and Ijebu”. Right!
This academic work painstakingly carried out by Dr. Ayisa should not provide a platform for insult on his person or among we Nigerians. We are quoting the work of some “Oyibo” and diminishing our own. Why can’t we engage in civil intelligent conversation here. If intelligence does not exist in your brain mute both fingers and mouth. It is very repulsive to see derogatory post from Nigerians on platforms that provide opportunity for civilized intelligent conversation for learning and enlightenment. A comprehensive analysis of previous work and historical facts shows not just the Igbos, but so many other tribes in Nigeria migrated from the Middle East and settled in this part of the world. Thanks Dr. Ayisa!
What a load of subservient and insulting tripe,our dna has a different story to tell about the origins of mankind and more importantly,our continent is now shown to be the cradle of humanity.
But rather than actually do some decent research,stultified Africans insist they are jews.
Credulous nitwits!
Is this a case of Johnny Just Come lately or me too syndrome? There is no empirical historical evidence to substantiate this claim of Ijebu Jewish ancestry other than the word of a clan head. The early Europeans who first came in contact with the native Africans first recorded the existence of great similarities between the Igbo race and the ancient Hebrews, the precursor to the Jews. These similarities between the Hebrews and the Igbos include but not limited to some significant spiritual observations and practices they share in common, with each other, such as the practice of male circumcision and the belief in monotheism. Basden, in his observation, was marveled at the high rate of fair skin people among the Igbo race quite similar to what he saw in Sudan which, according to him, lend credence to his conclusion that the Igbos may indeed be a part of the lost tribe of Israel. But if the Ijebus want that affiliation, they are welcomed to join their brothers in the greater Igbo nation. Otherwise, this may just be another attempt by the Yoruba controlled media to muddle up Igbo ancestry.
CHE ! , JEWS NO DEY CHOP PORK, BUT IGBO AND IJEBU DEY CHOP PORK NOW, WETIN COME BE THE SIMILARITY O,
I BEG MAKE AWUJALE OR ADENUGA COMMISSION AN ARCHEALOGICAL STUDIES TO DIG UP AND VERIFY OKE ERI MATTER AND THE TRUTH SHALL COME FORTH, CIVILIZATION DON PASS DIS “”WON NI, WON SOOPE MATTER O “”
We will review and take appropriate action.