Lenovo is one of the biggest names in computing today and Varjo is a leader in enterprise XR.
While the partnership between the two isn’t new, a recently announced expansion of the partnership certainly is. The result is Varjo XR and VR headsets available through Lenovo.
Varjo in Enterprise
Varjo headsets are quite possibly the best in the world. With unparalleled resolution and some of them having the ability to switch back-and-forth between MR and VR views, the headsets offer unparalleled utility and versatility that is used by enterprises from automotive to aeronautics.
Tech like that comes at a price. Their headsets currently run from around $5800 to to over $11,000. That’s a big chunk of change for some businesses. Further, businesses can’t just select a headset – they need to be aware of compatibility between the headset and the solutions that they want to use with it.
Lenovo in Enterprise XR
Lenovo has been in the hardware and software industry for a long time – this article started out on an IdeaPad. Over a year ago now, they launched ThinkReality, an internal brand dedicated to enterprise XR solutions.
ThinkReality worked with Pico Interactive to develop their 3-degrees-of-freedom enterprise Mirage Solo VR glasses and they offer an enterprise MR headset called A6. Perhaps their largest contribution to the XR space has been their workstations. Thanks in part to their many partnerships with headset manufacturers, their solutions are able to be largely device agnostic.
“When we talk to enterprise companies we can say you can build, you can manage, you can deploy, you can do it across AR, you can do it across VR, and you don’t have to be constrained to just our devices or just our cloud environment,” AR/VR Lead Nathan Pettyjohn told ARPost in a July 2020 interview.
A Match Made in Virtual Heaven
“Many existing VR offerings in the market today are enterprise versions of a consumer designed product,” Lenovo Solution Portfolio Lead, Mike Leach, said in a release shared with ARPost. “However, Lenovo’s professional workstations and Varjo’s VR and XR headsets are specifically engineered to perform in the most sophisticated and demanding enterprise use cases.”
While they are not the first or the only licensed Varjo reseller, their ability to add the headsets to their offerings streamlines the solution for businesses. As a result, enterprise customers and the two service and hardware partners come away as winners.
“One of the biggest obstacles in accelerating the usage and growth of professional VR/XR is getting all the right equipment sourced for an enterprise-grade set-up and ensuring compatibility between computers and headsets,” Varjo CEO Timo Toikkanen said in the release. “With Lenovo becoming a Varjo reseller, we eliminate a lot of this complexity.”
Reducing Barriers to Entry
A rapidly expanding market with high price points and under-researched ROIs are often given as barriers to entry for XR enterprise. However, friction should also be considered.
By combining the Lenovo name and hardware and software solutions with Varjo’s top-of-the-line headsets, this new partnership makes XR more accessible, efficient, and affordable for all.
