Discussion keeps the world'sturning.
This isRoundtable. You're listening toRoundtable.
Withmyself, how young I'm joined by Yushun and Li Yi in thestudio.
Comingup, hold on to yourheadsets.
The Extended Reality or XR Revolution is knocking on thedoor.
Is China ready to embrace this brave new world of blendedrealities, from VR gaming dens to AR-enhancedfactories.
Let's explore how the world is navigating the complex landscape of XR technologies and what it could mean for our digitaltomorrow.
And in the scorching summerheat, thanks to the DIY drink craze on socialmedia, ice cups are becoming the perfect companion for anybeverage.
Even major brands such as Nong Fu Spring have jumped on thisbandwagon, launching their own ice cup products in conveniencestores.
So what makes ice cups such a hotbusiness?
Our podcast listeners can find us at Roundtable China on AppleHighcast, XiaoYu-Ju,Spotify, and all major internationalplatforms.
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Now let's move on to the next topic discussiontoday.
Welcome to the future of multiplerealities, XRARVRMR.
Feeling lost in a sea ofR's?
You're notalone. China's tech scene is stirring up ahearty, alphabetsoup, and opinions are as mixed as the realitiesthemselves, from VR very risky to AR almostreal, MR mostlyridiculous, or XR extraridiculous, joking asideguys, we are diving spoon first into the bowl of digitaldimensions.
On June28th, Apple's spatial computing device Vision Pro finally made its grand entrance into the Chinesemail-in.
It's metwith... Politeinterest?
This lukewarm reception has left many wandering as China ready for this mixedup, maxed out menu ofrealities.
To help us make sense of thisall, let's turn to our in-house techexpert, youshun.
Thanks for fixing my computer and doing so many things with mydevices,etc.
So please offer us a glossary of terms in the world of so manyrealities.
Alright, so thanks for yourexplanation, something like a mostridiculous, making everything even more confusing to yourlisteners, Ithink.
Anyway, so basically VR and AR are quite commonnowadays.
I think virtual reality is VR and augmented reality isAR.
Virtual reality is a fully immersive experience that replaces the real world with a simulated digitalenvironment.
Basically, when you're wearing these kind of hatsets, you are getting into a virtualworld, but you interact with your realbody.
So that's kind of a realitypart.
And augmented reality overlays virtual information objects onto the realworld.
It enhances the real world with digital details such asimages,texts,animations, and usually access through ARglasses.
So when you are seeing through these ARglasses, you can see these virtual and digital images on the real surface or on the realfloor.
And that is basicallyAR.
And I think one good example is PokemonGo.
I love thatgame. You can basically catch all of these Pokemon's in your realcity.
So that is kind of the mixed or augmentedreality.
And mixed reality is the combined combination of both VR and AR emerges real and virtual worlds to create environments where digital and physical objects coexist and can interact in realtime.
And because these kind of devices require powerful chips and basically these computers torun.
And it not only requires a hatset, also a main office or main setup for you to actually run these kind of MRdevices.
And all inall, they can all be caught as extendedreality, which isXR.
So XR is the umbrella term that cover all of these real and virtual environments generated by computer graphics andwearables.
That there are a lot of very professional concepts forme.
But I'm not really a very key in person in terms of techproducts.
But my memory of one's using this sort of AR experience might be in a shopping mall here inBeijing.
It's so big that you can easily get lost in the shoppingmall.
So this operationcompany, they're offering this navigation service on the mini program onWeChat.
So all you have to do is to lift your phone and turn your cameraon.
And the program will automatically analyze where youare.
Imean, which floor youare.
Imean, based on thepictures, where the videos of those stores andbrands.
And you can just tap inwhere, which floor you want togo.
And there are like differentdirection, youknow, being shown on yourscreen.
So I guess that's the usage or application ofAR, Iguess.
Yes, ofcourse. And also a lot of these map apps are offering you the real-time image of which road you'reon.
And telling you which direction you'regoing, that is also ARtechnology.
I think we might need that in Chongqingcity.
Because it's set that inChongqing, which is a very complicated roadset.
You can easily get lost even with those ordinary navigation app because there are different and youfloors, differentlevels.
So maybe with this ARtechnology, you just don't really getlost.
Right. But with Apple's VisionPro, that's more of tilting towards the VRside.
Virtual reality of things isM-A-Rite.
Both it's branded as spatial computingdevice, which is actually reallyambitious.
But I know you've got an explanationhere, so fireaway.
Yeah. I would saypersonally, I think it is kindof,yes, VR because it has said that you can not seethrough.
So it is actually capturing the images with its camera and it's showing you realtime.
So you can see images of yoursurroundings, but it actually the image that they took picture or videos foryou.
Through thecamera. Through thecamera.
So we can see that it is basically that kind of virtual realitything, but in an augmented realityway.
Right.Well,okay, I have just one quibble for all of these technologies right now that is you have to get a separate device big orsmall, but you need a different device toenact, to use thistechnology.
Unless you can just use yourphone, yoursmartphone, like what Lee mentionedupfront.
It's maybe more convenient for mostpeople, but for themoment, it seems like it has to be those techno files who absolutely love technology to want to shell out extra money and sometimes big time if it's the Apple product to get a taste of the use of thesetechnologies.
And then with the Apple VisionPro, what I find to beagain, really interesting and which makes it potentially an amazing productis,okay, obviously Apple's very ambitious with its plans for thisproduct.
It's been built as a replacement to the MacBookcomputer.
So what at least this company has envisioned is that in thefuture, you don't use your computer or smartphoneanymore.
Just put onthis,well, at themoment, it looks kind of like a skigoggle, but it's pretty sleek and which is in line with a lot of the previous Apple designspirit, Isuppose.
So this is really cool in the sense that if it workswell, then you don't need nomouse, you don't need no extra pencilwhatsoever.
And with your eyeballsrolling, with your fingerstwitching, and then you're controlling all these different apps andprograms.
And thatidea, I don't want toadmit, but that is supercool.
Really? I think it'sscary.
That means that you can beworking.
Imean, 24hours, where youare.
Why isn't it you need to beworking?
I'mserious. I'mserious.
Actually, butanyway, it would begood.
Back toreality, considering the weight of Apple VisionPro, you can all wearit.
I think even more than twohours, because this is tooheavy.
Yeah, and my best friend happened to have gottenone, and it was because she is one of those technofiles, and then she got itwhen, evenbefore, it's official release inChina.
And her customer reviewis, it's tooheavy.
But there are some definitely innovations that's happening with the otherusages.
And it's creatingnew,like, real life scenarios for people to useit.
And I think that's sortof,well, we still need to see whether this kind of technology can catch on ornot.
But she said to me right before the show that it's brilliant for traveling byflight.
And shesaid,oh, because she hadthis,like, 10 hour flight to fly acrosscontinents.
And then she made sure to bring her brand new Vision Pro to use in flight and to watch movies to playgames, all thosethings.
And I just had to politely interject because she was going on and on aboutit.
Don'tyou, aren't you able to do that without the deviceanyway?
But she'slike,oh, it's a completely newdevice.
Andyeah,anyhow, you've got folks who are likethat.
And you need people sort of to be pushing the frontiers of tech in thatsense.
So where are we at right now in the XRindustry?
And a little bird told me that this industry is actually suffered a little bit in recentyears.
Yeah. Because when you look at the data of this industryglobally, the overall market is on a downwardtrend, except for the ARsector.
Data from Conor Point Research shows that in the first quarter of2024, global VR headset shipments decreased by29%year-on-year,year-over-year, and51%quarter-over-quarter.
However, global AR smartglasses,shipments, increased by40%year-on-year.
And when you look at the situation here inChina,actually, there are some very similartrends, according to data from CINLresearch.
Overall, in the first quarter of thisyear,2024, the domestic XR market sales reached 164,000units, that's a quarter-on-quarter decline of12%.
Amongthese, sales of VR devices saw a year-on-year decrease of6%.
And that's basically due to the niche nature of consumer-grade VR and still insufficiently rich contentresources.
Incontrast, consumer-grade AR devices reached 66,000units, that's a year-on-year increase of62%.
So the currently the level of financing activity in a domestic AR market is also higher than in the VRmarket.
However, maybe with the more products being launched by those new manufacturers and also major tech products both domestically andinternational, people just can be more andsay, welcoming thistrend.
Butoverall, I think that the dispatched some super-tax-sevyperson, like you justmentioned, for averageconsumers, is still a quite nicheproduct.
And when thinking about buying or notbuying, most of it was just ahesitate, I wouldsay.
Well, now it's still kind of at the explorationstage.
But you've got at least one product that looks prettynice, at least for those who might want to experience some real-life RoboCop atleast, your dressup.
It seems like that's something they cando.
And for most averagefolks, I think we'll still need to wait for at least a couple more generations atleast.
Sothen, I want to see more people use it and I want to see these companies invest more and upgrade their products before I want to put another extra thing on myface.
Also, I wearglasses, all three of us wearglasses.
Can we even fit that thing on top of ourglasses?
And I can't wear contactlenses.
Not even if I wantto.Well, that's kind of an easy tosolve.
Oh, is that athing? Take Apple's Vision Pro as anexample.
You will give your description to the manufacturer and they will give you the lenses that just fits youreyesight.
That is basically the thing that people areresolving.
But I think when we're mentioning these kind oftechnology, we say it is kind of aniche, this is kind ofnew.
Butactually, with the introduction of all of these virtualreality, augmented reality aren't quite a long timeactually.
We've seen these ideas for solong.
But the thing is that why it is not sopopularized, I think ofcourse, thecontent.
And as Hoyamentioned, I am going to wear a whole new device on myface.
Yeah. And I need to be good enough to basically replace the thing that I am using rightnow.
So that is the issue that it isfacing, which is the ceiling of this kind of device or this kind of content is reallyhigh.
And once it is usable or it is kind of common to be used to averageusers, and there is a still a long way togo.
Or we can also say the user habit of using this sort of extra XR devices hasn't really be cultivated because these devices are so different from mobilephone, computer andtablets.
But thinkingabout,say, there is a new product that in the shape of mobilephones,basically, you can use it in a way you use mobilephone.
I would say people are more than willing to try it than this sort of Googlething.
It is simply because for averageconsumers, we don't really have this habit of using such devices that you just have to put it on yourface.
So that is also just a one challenge for these techcompanies.
I guessso. And remember the failure of GoogleGlasses?
Was it a decadeago? It has been awhile, Ithink.
But at thetime, Iremember, for somereason, people started this chat on social media that kind of painted Google Glass users andwearers, kind of like arrogant doucheers and those poorpeople.
Theygot, there was this guy who was just taking a walk down Manhattan in New York or something likethat.
And this Google Glasses got snatched bya, that wasrobbery, Ithink.
But people kind of applauded the perpetrator instead of the poorguy, at least on socialmedia,anyhow.
So do you feel that maybe for the likes of Vision Pro or this new generation of AR products or XRproducts, maybe the reputation can be a little bitimproved?
Or at least that person with the Apple Vision Pro on his or her face does not risk robbery because it's too difficult to get it off your face just by walking by you or whiz and byyou.
So how do you see as sort of the future for this industry or at least with the products that we've heardof?
At least these kind of products are showing us what kind of future or what kind of direction that we arefacing.
Of course backthen, Google Glasses are their kind of product that only cater to a little amount of people who are in favor of maybe taking videos or pictures realtime.
But right now we can see that there are so many things that we can do with all of these assets andgoggles.
So at least people are seeing these kind ofdirections.
And also maybe rightnow, of course we know that the price of these assets are not verycheap.
I think in the future we may have more products with more affordable prices because they are trying to replace our cell phones with these kind of assets in which means they need to offer users a more affordable price to make most of people can buythem.
Reaching more users and getting them accustomed to using the product is the way to expand the market or in other way to say it essentially needing consumer friendlyprices.
Yeah, although I currently don't have any plan to buy any of these devices and I don't really see any possibility of buying them in the foreseeablefuture, but I'm still quite promising when it comes to the future development of this industry because we actually already see a lot of application of these technologies in a lot of commercialareas.
Forexample, like architecture and automobile and automaking and of coursehealthcare.
I think these are just the front-running technologies that will be widely accepted in the future in a sense that currently these devices are soexpensive, maybe because the operation and also the research and development costs for those companies are so quitehigh.
And maybe in thefuture, I think those costs will also belowered.
And in thatsense, I think the price of these devices will just be also belower, which also make it more easier for people to buy it and to tryit.
Right.Well, the thing with Apple is it invested billions of dollars and spent decades on this device in the hope of making itbetter.
And then inChina, we've seen that there are actually plenty of Chinese companies who have devoted attention and real investment in thisarea, banking on itsfuture.
And I think still companies need to make their technologybetter.
And we've seen this other video I stumbled across the other day about this Chinese company which deployedthis...
I can't tell which kind of are it is oftechnology, but it looks likea...
Glasses?Yeah, pretty plain regularsunglasses, but it's got like real-life translations floating onit.
And then Imean, that's only one of the many features that this kind of technology or a headset is supposed toprovide.
And with this Chinesecompany, it's offering that one feature with thissunglasses, not realsunglasses, maybe VRglasses, whatever you callit, at a much cheaper price than the internationalcounterparts.
So I guess there is definitely competition and development that can be had in this area and then the customer will be the one to benefit once everythingimproves.
Coming upnext, as temperaturessoar, young people across China are discovering a cool new trend of icecups.
Join us as we uncover this refreshingphenomenon.
Staytuned. Looking forpassion?
How about fierydebate?
Wanna hear about current events in China from differentperspectives?
Then tune in toRoundtable, where East meets West and understand it is thegoal.
Just the hour of Roundtable withmyself,young, I'm joined by Yushun and Li Yi in thestudio.
We're diving into the latest summer sensation of icecups.
It's called Bingbei inChinese.
These small disposable cups filled with ice cubes have become a must-have summeraccessory, especially among youngpeople, with prices ranging from 2 to 5yuan, that's both less than 1 USdollar.
Forcup, these frosty companions are versatile enough for anyoccasion.
Need energy boost atwork?
Try an ice cup with your favoritecoffee.
Wanna cool down out andabout?
Treat yourself to an ice cup filled with icedtea.
During leisuretime, they're great for chilling fruity mocktails assuch.
Why are ice cups so popular all of a sudden thissummer?
These cups always look veryattractive, I wouldsay.
Really? I saw them on social media platforms with their clear ice cubes and the colorful drinks may be plurying into by customers themselves and making them very visually appealing and also veryInstagrammable, especially insummertime.
Just looking at these pictures makes me feel a little bit cooler and eager to drinkthem,actually.
Traveling inThailand, almost everyone recommended that I should buy a 7-11 ice cup and add my favorite drink toit.
We can see that on social mediaplatforms, a lot of people are showing you how to make your favorable drink by yourselves by using different types of drinks into that icecup.
The DIY do ityourself,craze.
My questionis, why do these drink companies charge for extra fee when it comes to these ice cups because forme, it's basically water in iceshape?
Also, you mentioned those ice cups that are sold in convenience stores inThailand.
I assume they'refree,actually.
They don't reallycharge.
They're notfree.Oh,really?
Ofcourse. You just didn't see the priceacting.
Oh,yeah, maybe that's mybad.
My argument is that how does itdiffer?
Imean, how doesit, Imean, you pour some juice and also soda drink into an ice cup different from those bottled drinks stored in refrage in those conveniencestores.
That's why I don't really getit.
That's why I never ask for ice cubes because once the icemelts, it dilutes yourdrink.
That's why I always have it separately and also this is me being traditionalChinese.
Thatis, I like my drinkshot.
Yeah.No, that is actually the reason why a lot of people buy ice cups because they think the original drinks are just a little toostrong.
Yeah. Then with ice cubes init, it can be just right level ofsweetness.
Okay,okay. I can tell you are just theperfect, my best spokesperson for icecup.
Also, a reason why a lot of people are buying these ice cups and why these companies are charging for ice cubes is because there are some regulations on making ice cubeactually.
It is quite strict and it need to be very hygiene and the factory that you made all of these ice cubes need to be clean enough and water should be cleanenough.
In thatway, there are some actually cost of making these icecups.
That's a brilliant point and that's why although I respect the regulations andstandards, I respect the good people running the businesses but at the back of mymind, I don't trustthem.
I alwayssay, that's probably just tapwater.
I'm probably wrong but in mymind, I'm entitled to what Ithink.
That's another reason why I'm kindof, the ice cubes seem a little bit dubious tome.
You see the younger generationwith, youknow, you shun as a representative here that they're really intothis.
Andagain, this would be a generationaldivide, millennials versus a GenZ, my dearfriend, youshun.
I just don't think I want to pay an extra for icecubes.
I can get my own ice cubes from my home fridge butoutside, I know there's a matter of convenience or whatnot but I'm not paying forit, youshun.
You pay forit. And also I was thinking like why we didn't really have this ice cubes before maybe because we do stick to this drinking more hot water concept before but it's not really somehow changing or young people today don't careanymore.
That'sokay. But insummertime, youknow, you can just resist from drinking a cup of iceddrink.
You shun's finding it difficult to get into my mind to get the point across and to add a little bit more insult to thatinjury, myfriend, youshun.
I drink my latte's hot even in so fartime.
Can we still befriends?
I mean the age gap is even larger herenow.
Ohno.Okay, let's try to shake hands and make friends maybe after theshow.
But certainly we see that even for industry heavyweights such as a Nufu Shantua or Nufu Spring has gotten into this industry as well and hopefully shaking it up a littlebit.
