Just like all other interesting stuff related to Nokia, we had reported about Nokia’s patents covering Head-worn or Head-Mounted displays. Read our earlier coverage by clicking here. So, while these patents provided ample hint about Nokia working on HMD (Head-Mounted displays), the first VR product that came from Nokia, was not a VR headset or Google-glass like HMD, but Nokia OZO, a 360-deg VR camera.
Now, Nokia Technologies president Ramzi Haidamus has talked about the reasons of not deciding to launch a VR headset and going for rather VR camera in an interview with Engadget. Nokia as it seems realized that the VR headsets will get commoditized with so many manufacturers already crowding the VR headset market.
Haidamus soon realized that, rather than compete with the likes of Oculus, Sony and HTC for the crowded VR headset market, Nokia could plug a hole in the production process and reinvent itself. “The HMD I saw was actually pretty good, but I felt like there was so much competition that was going to happen in the marketplace,” he says.
“It was a no-brainer to go after the camera versus the head-mounted displays, which are going to be quite commoditized pretty soon,” Haidamus says of the decision to go all in on Ozo.
So, Nokia indeed was working on a VR headset, one that was pretty good in words of Haidamus. Perhaps Nokia can decide to bring its VR headset at some point in future once it establishes market for its VR camera.
