Nokia has finally slashed off a huge $15,000 off of its Ozo VR camera but it still brings the price tag of the device to a staggering $45,000 each.
The company is even planning to sell their VR camera Ozo in China with online video firm LeEco as a partner to gain more ground in the Chinese market. LeEco's VR division dubbed as LeVR will be the one to handle Ozo's marketing to sell more of the VR camera to aspiring film makers and studios that want to dive into virtual reality.
Full-length VR films are hard to pull off and it is not just the camera that is the problem. Audiences will also need to own a good VR headset which is still expensive to come by these days with the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift devices.
Nokia launched the Ozo initially for the European and United States markets but it is now expanding into China, TechCrunch has learned. It seems to be a viable strategy considering that China is one of the world's largest consumer market but the Ozo is not really a product for mass consumption.
Most of the content available for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift VR headsets are games or apps. VR films have yet to take off due to the difficulty and expensive price to pay to produce such content but there are already 360-degree videos scattered across Facebook and YouTube.
Nokia is also planning to launch their new OZO Live and OZO Player SDK to help developers and film makers to easily create VR content with their surround camera, Slashgear reported. The Finland-based company's VR camera has already been utilized to cover some famous events across the world such as World Youth Day and the premiere of Alice Through the Looking Glass by Disney.
LeVR and Nokia's partnership could push the Ozo VR camera's sales even further for studios in the country that want to dive into making VR films. The $45,000 price tag is still not something that every movie studio or production house can afford easily.