Nokia Corporation (NOK)

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Nokia Dives Into Virtual Reality With OZO Camera

Nokia unveils OZO, a new, ball-shaped camera, which can capture virtual reality content

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) plans to mark its return to consumer space with a novel virtual reality (VR) offering. According to ABC News, the once-dominant handset maker unveiled OZO, a camera to record content to be displayed by VR technologies.

OZO is shaped like a ball, and has eight cameras, shutter sensors, and microphones, which enable users to capture 360 degrees video content via synchronization. The new VR camera can make its captured images and videos operable with existing VR technologies and headsets, such as Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ:FB) Oculus Rift.

The new camera captures images and videos in 3D, and can make displayable VR content creation significantly easy. Previously, making a virtual reality film could be a lengthy procedure, as various images needed to be connected and stitched together to achieve the 3D effect.

Of all tech companies,
Nokia is the first one to come up with a VR camera.

In 2013, the company sold its handset business to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) for $7.5 billion, with only 3 units left. Since the takeover, this is the first hardware that Nokia plans to launch itself.

It should be noted that such a VR offering is not a common consumer’s regular buy. A technology such as this will be expensive, and is probably not aimed at the regular audience. The target consumers will be most likely rather limited, compared to Nokia’s hardware offerings’ history.

Nokia has yet to disclose the exact specifications, pricing information, and the official release date. It is known that shipments are expected to commence in 4Q, and that further tests will be conducted with professionals, prior to the commercial release.

With OZO, the company probably aims to bridge the gap in the VR space, where technology to display VR content is abundant, but content is insufficient.

OZO may be intended for normal consumers to develop VR content for their own use, or for large scale developers.

However, a more plausible explanation is that Nokia has aimed this offering for high-end content developers, such as Hollywood filmmakers, and global game-makers.
Given the gadget’s functions, OZO will fit perfectly in studios, and would also be affordable by large-scale businesses.

Although it is exciting to see that Nokia will unveil high-tech hardware after years, we don’t particularly believe that OZO would prevail in the market, since there is massive competition on way.
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