VR headset manufacturer Pico has long been dedicated to enterprise in North America. They’ve been backing that stance in recent months with a lineup of new industry partners that now includes Snobal.
ARPost and Pico check in with each other with some frequency but, despite Snobal having been in business for the last six years, we had not yet become acquainted with them. So, we’ll start off by introducing them and then we’ll explore what the partnership means for the two companies as well as for their customers and clients.
Meet Snobal
“We’ve always had, as our North Star, the business applications of VR and AR and therefore see ourselves as one of the world’s earliest technology companies working exclusively in VR for business applications,” Snobal co-founder and CEO, Murray James, said in an emailed interview. “Our focus is on building cloud VR solutions to help organisations better train, communicate and collaborate.”
Their upcoming project is Snobal Spaces, a tool for immersive collaborative workspaces. While the tool is still in development, interested users can register for early access online. Remote collaboration was one of the most exciting use cases for the partnership, according to Pico’s APAC Region Director Hu Huapeng.
“When people are in different locations, users can see each other as an avatar and interact within 3D environments to collaborate on projects together,” Hu said in an email. “VR also allows them to engage safely in otherwise dangerous training environments like putting out a fire or repairing an airplane engine. These virtual situations can also aid to save cost and time compared to creating real-world scenarios.”
In addition to Spaces, Snobal already offers complete solutions for education and creates custom licensed solutions. Like any enterprise solution should, Snobal prides themselves on their privacy and security.
“We know our customers care deeply about data privacy, security and ownership and it’s something at Snobal we take seriously,” said James. ”As a customer, you maintain control of your content and who has access to it. All Snobal Cloud computing resources are hosted in AWS cloud, with access to its data encryption capabilities.”
Partnership Is a Beautiful Thing
With Oculus ending the Go and more recently announcing that users will have to sign in through Facebook, Pico is selling itself in private and secure affordable enterprise VR tech. Partnering with a security-focused enterprise cloud services provider with remote collaboration tool on the way definitely advances their position in the space.
“Both Pico and Snobal believe the privacy of its users is of the utmost importance, which is why no social media profiles are required for use – all the way from setting up the headset to utilizing the platform,” reads a press release announcing the partnership.
Of course, the proximity of this announcement with those significant announcements made by Oculus isn’t to suggest that they are directly related. Pico has been expanding partnerships left and right, particularly two that help to set it up in the healthcare field. The Snobal partnership should be seen more in the context of this progression than as a response to Oculus.
“We started connecting with Snobal right around the launch of our Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye headsets this spring,” said Hu. “Pico and Snobal share a common vision to see how we can remove roadblocks for clients who might otherwise find barriers to reaching their business goals.”
A Solution Just in Time
There’s more to enterprise VR than virtual collaboration. However, at this particular moment in time, it’s a pain point for many people in the space. This partnership represents more people having access to these solutions through Snobal’s software and Pico’s headsets.
