Mon, May 02, 2016 page14

• Oculus Rift delays dampen VR fervor

  GROWING DISCONTENT: Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder, who is yet to receive his headset, said there is ‘an element of inexcusable incompetence’ taking place

  • AP, LOS ANGELES
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  Virtual reality (VR), oddly enough, is not immune to the problems that arise in practical reality. Just ask would-be fans of the Oculus Rift headset, many — possibly most — of whom are still waiting for their US$600 gadgets more than four weeks after they started shipping.

  The delay, naturally, has sparked online grousing and even some data-based activism, including the creation of a crowdsourced spreadsheet for tracking who received their prized VR gear and when. Some longtime supporters of Oculus VR Inc have declared themselves alienated by the company’s inability to deliver; others have defected to rival VR systems, or are at least considering it.

  Christian Cantrell, a software engineer and science-fiction author in Sterling, Virginia, put in his pre-order about 15 minutes after Oculus started accepting them in January — and is still waiting.

  Cantrell said it has been a “bummer,” because he passed up buying a rival headset, HTC Corp’s (宏達電) Vive headset, hoping to be part of a VR “renaissance” with Rift.

  “I have been kind of like an Oculus believer, but if they bump it again, I might just order a Vive,” he said.

  It is too soon to say how the delays would affect Oculus, much less the overall acceptance of VR, a technology that submerges users in realistic artificial worlds. In other contexts, big companies such as Apple Inc have managed to weather shortages and shipping delays for products such as the Apple Watch and its new iPhone SE.

  However, some find the Rift delays intolerable, especially given that Oculus is no fledgling startup, but part of Facebook Inc — the social network bought it two years ago for US$2 billion.

  “There is an element of inexcusable incompetence going on,” said J.P. Gownder, a Forrester Research analyst, who placed his pre-order in the first 10 minutes, but does not expect his Rift until the middle of this month.

  Experienced hardware manufacturers would have set up suppliers months or years in advance to avoid these types of problems, Gownder said. The fact that Oculus managed to bungle its launch with more than three years to prepare, plus the backing of Facebook, is “scandalous,” he added.

  Oculus, which has blamed the delays on an “unexpected component shortage,” declined to comment on specifics. It said in a statement that it has moved to address the shortage and expects deliveries to accelerate in coming weeks. By way of apology, Oculus said it would offer free shipping to customers who ordered before April 1.

  Few have been as disappointed as some of the company’s earliest supporters. In January, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey announced that 5,600 of the company’s first Kickstarter backers would be eligible for a free headset. He then tweeted on the eve of first deliveries that the gifts would “start arriving” two days before others, giving the impression Kickstarter backers would get theirs first.

  It did not happen. Unhappy customers gathered on Reddit to complain and to figure out where they stood in line; one poster cataloged the frustration on a crowdsourced spreadsheet. While not necessarily representative of the entire Oculus customer base, that data showed that of the 131 early Kickstarter backers who submitted responses, only 28 report receiving a unit. Of 1,399 pre-order customers, just 165 said they got a Rift.

  The virtual reality boom is just getting going and the competition is growing. Sony Corp is to release its PlayStation VR headset later this year. Google is expected to expand on its primitive Cardboard viewer, and recent Apple acquisitions suggest that it might also be jumping into the field soon.

  The Rift is losing some of its first-mover appeal. Some games originally designed to be Oculus exclusives have now been hacked to work on the HTC Vive, which launched about a week after the Rift, but has not experienced shipping delays. Customers who bought Rift games before receiving their headset can now get digital keys so they can play the games in real reality, on a regular PC.

  Bill Ellis, a 30-year-old computer engineer in Houston, Texas, has been playing with his Vive since it arrived on April 5, and might not keep the Rift after it arrives. He said his plan was always to buy both, and sell the one that did not live up to expectations.

  “The one that has not shown up is the one that has not lived up to my expectations so far,” Ellis said.
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