Xiaomi announces Cardboard-like Mi VR Play headset, wrapped in Lycra, compatible with 4.7" to 5.7"phones
and it comes in leopard print Shane McGlaun / SlashGear : Xiaomi Mi VR gets official, availability unknown Lance Whitney / CNET : Xiaomi VR headset is yours for 15 cents — if you're a beta tester Brad Linder / Liliputing : Xiaomi's first VR headset is... a fancy version of Google Cardboard
Context & Ripple Effects
Xiaomi's Mi VR Play is the cheapest rung yet on a ladder Chinese Android makers have been building since OnePlus gave away its own Cardboard-style viewer for $0 plus shipping in 2015: a near-free phone shell that turns an existing handset into a VR device. Weeks earlier, ZTE took a different route with its Daydream-ready Axon 7 and a bundled first headset at $450, betting on Google certification rather than fabric-and-zipper improvisation.
The bet paid forward: by early 2018 Xiaomi had graduated from the Lycra viewer to a standalone Mi VR built with Oculus for China, supplying the software where Facebook could not operate — and by 2023 it was showing a wireless AR glasses prototype. The 15-cent beta price is less a product launch than customer acquisition for that longer hardware arc.
First-order effects
- Beta testers get the headset for 15 cents, making the real product the funnel of engaged users testing VR on their existing 4.7–5.7-inch Xiaomi phones rather than the headset itself.
Second-order effects
- ZTE's certified-plus-bundled approach now competes against a rival giving the category away, pressuring every Chinese vendor's VR accessory into either a Daydream-class spec play or a zero-margin giveaway.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, tethered novelty viewers are the on-ramp to standalone hardware: Xiaomi's path from this viewer to the Oculus-partnered Mi VR and the AR glasses prototype shows phone vendors converting throwaway accessories into platform positions.
The trend: Chinese smartphone vendors are using near-free Cardboard-style viewers as ecosystem hooks that mature into standalone VR and AR hardware partnerships.