FitXR joins forces with PICO, Apple, Meta, Tencent layout, the year of VR fitness mania

While AI will be the industry's highest priority in 2023, there is another segment of the market that is familiar to the industry but has not received much attention that is quietly shifting.

People with a high sensitivity to emerging markets should have noticed that the application of AR/VR in fitness is gradually becoming more and more popular, and the issue of digital sports has been put on the national development agenda.

Technology companies are accelerating their fitness industry presence. From Maslow's five levels of needs, human beings will seek entertainment, socialization and even higher needs when they have satisfied their basic needs.

Nowadays, in the background of rich material life, people have long satisfied the basic needs of survival, and the demand in the pursuit of health, quality and personalization is growing highly, and the corresponding products come along.

Just like the rise of VR fitness, Meta has a strong voice in grasping the market trend. Meta initially started in the campus around the needs of young people, and now Zuckerberg has started to make efforts to young people's entertainment and leisure "VR fitness games", which has obviously smelled the market opportunity. At the same time Apple's upcoming MR headset, its content ecology has also increased the fitness applications.

This huge market is emerging.

Steve Jobs once said in a media interview, "Great products can open markets without doing market research." Technology is playing such a power, since the technology continues to iterate, people's lifestyles have changed dramatically, and the demand for products has also changed.

In the traditional era we were able to touch physical objects as the basis of exchange, while the development from 2.0 to 3.0, technology allows us to complete transactions even when we are detached from the real environment, and virtual market consumption in the future meta-universe space will further promote the interaction of multiple scenarios and enable more choices in the consumption environment.

Similarly, when people's consumption patterns shift, their lifestyles will naturally be affected. Traditional offline fitness will also be transformed into online fitness, and even explode into a very promising market segment.

Where there is a market, you will see capital. At the end of March 2023, FitXR announced that it will launch its VR fitness products on PICO devices and continue to expand its VR fitness application scenarios in the UK, European and Asian markets. FitXR's launch of fitness applications on PICO devices shows that there is already a certain amount of VR devices in the market on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also shows that VR fitness experience there is a certain demand, users for VR headset fitness is not a big rejection.

In February 2023, Meta also finally officially acquired Within, the studio behind the VR fitness app Supernatural. during the epidemic, Supernatural gained a high level of attention, with 77,000 people in the discussion group on Facebook; not only in the United States, Europe, Asia and other regions have a large number of users.

As a VR fitness application, Supernatural can provide a game-like scenario where users can not only exercise, but also not look so boring, increasing the fun of fitness. executives of Meta said they hope to use this acquisition to create a bright future for VR fitness.

According to foreign media sources, the content ecology of Apple's MR headset will also focus on three major scenarios: video, fitness and office. In terms of fitness applications, Apple will create a product that blends multiple effects through pictures, sound, and off-air sound to help users meditate. In addition, Apple is also developing a 3D version of its Fintness+ service that will allow users to watch coaches perform and follow along with their workouts from their VR headsets.

Although there is no definite information about the content ecology of Apple's MR headset, Apple's patent application for the "Smart Ring" shows Apple's intention to create a more comfortable VR fitness experience.

It is said that the "smart ring" patent technology in the future may involve Apple Watch bracelet, fitness bracelet, VR glove bracelet and fashion bracelet, the bracelet device includes embedded micro-mechanical ultrasonic sensors (MUT) to detect touch, gestures, physical health signals, and transfer data between devices. If the information is true, Apple MR's content ecology will be an opportunity to pry open a new window for the current VR fitness market.

Meanwhile, on February 20, British fitness game developer and publisher Quell announced $10 million in Series A funding led by Tencent, whose Impact platform is the world's first dedicated fitness gaming system, a motion and biometric tracking technology that provides an immersive video game-cum-fitness experience, and which is also building its proprietary fitness hardware devices.

In addition, PICO, the number one VR hardware manufacturer in China, has also launched popular VR fitness applications such as All-in-One Sports VR, OhShape, and Super Burning Moment. In April this year, PICO also launched the developer version of the body tracker, with skin-friendly material flexible straps, users can strap it to their arms or thighs to achieve accurate motion capture, and Apple's patent exposed finger ring has similarities.

Technology giants have entered the VR fitness, let me think of Steve Jobs founded the road of Apple, the importance of niche market areas. Whether it's making apps, music, systems or devices developed for the education market, when doing enough in one area to be successful, going from 0 to 1 will expand a larger market.

Currently, most people only see this aspect of VR games, but VR games are only one segment of the market. When many segments are built out, the content ecology of VR will become very rich, and then the market will be further opened.

The epidemic broke out in 2020, and online fitness began to wind up. Short video, live and other forms of fitness punch cards become a new way for people to pursue health in their home life.

At the same time, according to the relevant research "trend fitness small survey" shows that among 1116 young people, only 1% of the population basically do not exercise, the population with regular exercise habits amounted to 54.3%, while the post-00s is the longest weekly exercise time in all age groups of sports people, an average of 3.2 days.

Countries around the world attach great importance to fitness for all; and young people show a more active pursuit of fitness. Therefore, the traditional offline fitness can no longer highly meet the current fitness needs of all people, while full participation in fitness also requires more forms of promotion and more groundbreaking scenarios.

VR just became a breakthrough to explore this scene, the current market on VR fitness high-frequency words are fresh, fun, professional. VR fitness covers the components of the game, you can spend time in a playful form of exercise, naturally interesting; at the same time, due to the setting of the content, the posture is not standard can not pass, and then superimposed on the one-on-one professional coaching, intelligent fitness physical test, etc., further breakthrough The professionalism of the sport.

For example, Liteboxer, a home boxing system manufacturer, launched a virtual reality game called "Liteboxer VR", which adds "Total Body", a full-body exercise program with one-on-one "interaction" with a coach.

Not only have real-life coaches video guidance to help familiarize themselves with the course, practice punching, squatting, dodging, changing arm positions and other movements, but also in VR highly recreated boxing scenes, through the rhythm of music and lighting changes to suggest the location and timing of the punch.

VR fitness compared to the traditional fitness more emphasis on fitness immersion, fun, professional interaction, etc., in many ways to solve the traditional fitness pain points. Nowadays, VR fitness is becoming more and more acceptable among young people, according to research data from the Backwave Institute, 38% of the population is willing to exercise through VR devices.

In addition, seniors are starting to become a major force in the VR fitness trend. 2021 U.S. virtual platform provider Rendever launched "RendeverFit," a VR fitness program designed specifically for seniors, and Rendever has deployed more than 500 senior living communities in North America and partnered with more than Rendever has deployed over 500 senior living communities in North America and has partnered with over 400 nursing homes. Rendever also recently acquired Alcove, a social app designed for seniors that can be used at home with family members.

RendeverFit currently has over 600,000 users and has provided over 2 million VR experiences for seniors. It is worth mentioning that in 2023 Rendever made the "World's Most Innovative Companies 2023" list for the first time, ranking 7th in the field of augmented reality, with the top 10 list including UNITY, Coca-Cola, Meta, Google and others.

Currently, aging is a problem that all countries are facing. Many countries have already entered the aging society. Over time, the elderly population will become increasingly large, and the health of the elderly will face many problems, such as physical decay, memory degradation, cognitive disorder, etc., which may be alleviated by the power of technology, just like the ability of VR in medical care in general.

And according to the "Global VR Fitness Game Market Growth (Status and Outlook) 2023-2029" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") published by HTF Market Report, the global VR fitness game market size is expected to grow from $111 million in 2022 to $1.159 billion in 2029; it is expected that from 2023 to 2029, the compound The compound annual growth rate will reach 39.8%.

Meanwhile, the Report shows that the global VR fitness game market is seeing an increasing number of players, with major developers including Meta, FitXR, Resolution Games, Survios, etc., accounting for over 73% of the market share. From the product type segmentation, the market share of music rhythm type is more than 41%, and in the application type segmentation, the market share of multiplayer fitness application type is more than 51%.

From the point of view of VR fitness ecology, VR technology can not only bring the public a sense of immersion based on the audio-visual senses, but also transform the boring and anti-human characteristics of traditional sports fitness, the integration of fitness and science, intelligent fitness plays a role in promoting the future fitness market.

But VR fitness is not so perfect, for human exercise habits, the current VR equipment still needs to be improved, 500-600g weight is not suitable for a long time with the head, in the high temperature of about 37 ° summer or will produce a certain sense of dullness. Of course, these are hardware problems, I believe that in the context of continuous technological progress, the weight will drop. Just like the first generation of computers/television sets, iterating from a large back to a slim display.

 Can VR fitness explode 

The VR industry has had its ups and downs over the years, and what the industry has called for most is the lack of phenomenal products, VR needs a trigger, VR fitness as a segment of the industry, although only a small experience scene, but really can stimulate the VR industry ecology to some extent.

See online many people will be worried about using VR to fitness without a great scene is difficult to perform, and even unsafe, while eyes have been staring at the lens will also bring a great burden on the eyes. In fact, in my experience of this week, it seems that the need for a large scene may often just come from the imagination of the untried, at first I also think so "home living room is very small, so with the headset moving around will certainly inadvertently hit where, right?"

But when you really go to experience, lay a yoga mat, set a good safety zone, even in the small living room can be completed in nearly 30 minutes of exercise. After all, the exercise program is not like the gym gymnastics that is a lot of movement.

The only thing that makes the whole process difficult for me is that the current VR equipment are not adjusted to myopic eyes this function, for myopic people, need to wear glasses and then put on the headset to exercise.

When you move around, the weight of the headset will not only press on the head, but also on the glasses, bringing a very uncomfortable experience to the bridge of the nose. For nearsighted people, you also need to go back to the market to buy some VR eye mask, pad in the middle to use, play the role of anti-slip and sweat absorption, improve some experience, but the weight is still there.

The most important thing is, long-term with VR headset will not cause a burden on the eyes? A few years ago, some people have done research, eye fatigue felt during the use of VR, can be restored in the later stages of the short rest process. That is, if not long-term use of VR equipment, the impact on the eyes will not be great.

The current VR fitness content ecology aside, the hardware can dissuade some of the crowd. If you are keen on fitness in order to achieve a good shaping effect of the crowd, VR headset is not yet able to meet the real needs of such people. If only from the fitness and leisure point of view, VR fitness can already meet the needs of most people.

Further to Meta's acquisition, Apple's new MR device wants to launch a fitness application if it is based on actual demand considerations, but also shows that the layout of the technology giant is making the VR ecosystem continue to improve. As time settles, whether it is hardware or software, the development of the VR ecology will be like "fight and upgrade" to move the whole ecological chain to form a perfect closed loop.

The layout of the VR fitness ecology is a long line, if the VR industry can be as Zuckerberg foresees, the next 5-10 years consumer market explosion, when people's demand for VR experience will be high, the development of VR fitness will logically usher in high growth.

In addition, from the point of view of the current profit model, VR games are already a more mature branch. The implementation of VR fitness in the mode of VR games will not take too much risk in the path of commercialization.

On the one hand, not only can you create a quantitative product, on the other hand, there is a clear business path, VR fitness outbreak is only a matter of time.