When Oculus Rift was launched in 2014, industry stakeholders speculated that a new high-end home virtual reality headset would disrupt the entertainment industry. Only four years later, technology has come to a crossroads, and it is still not accepted by mainstream consumers.
l reality and augmented realityIn a recent study, 25 percent of broadband households reported being familiar with a particular type of VR technology, but only 8 percent owned a headset, Parks Associates researchers found.
Owners of headphones use them less
While ownership has increased significantly over the past two years, VR headphones have not experienced the explosion of acceptance that has characterized connected devices such as smart watches and smart speakers. Most consumers consider VR headsets to be a luxury niche product.
The game stays at the heart of VR technology: the average headset owner plays 1.7 hours more video games than the average game console owner. However, VR content providers have sought to create an exclusive game that would garner widespread praise and mainstreaming among players.
Titles like Resident Evil 7, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, and Fallout 4 VR have gained critical acclaim, but they were multi-platform releases that many players experienced on other consoles before releasing on VR.
As a result, consumer use of VR headsets has actually declined, the study suggests. Forty-one percent of headphone owners reported that their use had decreased when they first purchased the headset.
In contrast, only 23% of headphone owners reported an increase in their use immediately after their first purchase, suggesting that many consumers have restricted the use of VR headphones. This is probably due to a lack of quality content.
However, VR headset manufacturers have the opportunity to create virtual reality experiences that extend beyond the gaming space. VR's use in healthcare, education and enterprise-level implementation represents VR's next frontier as manufacturers seek to expand beyond players.
VR's health promise
Healthcare VR is expected to be the focus of technology presence at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. The Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has begun using VR to help patients in pain by leveraging technology to take care of patients.
Patients receiving treatments from IV insertions to delivery can use VR to transport them to soothing virtual environments such as Yellowstone National Park. This can help relieve the pain and anxiety associated with medical treatment.
VR for training
In the fall, national retailer Walmart purchased 17,000 Oculus Go headphones designed to be used to train employees for Black Friday. The deal is the largest corporate investment in VR in history.
The headphones transported workers crowded to the shops on Black Friday, where they can learn how to deal with customer service issues that large crowds bring to retail at once. Employees were able to repeat the training as many times as needed without straining managers or arresting colleagues who were able to learn the material faster.
Underdeveloped ecosystem
Several cases, such as pain management and retail training, undoubtedly represent VR at the forefront of technology.
However, for this holiday season, the VR ecosystem has come to a standstill. With no new headphones being released in 2018, and many high-end systems still costing most consumers unreasonably, the significant benefits of adoption from holiday shopping are unlikely.
While there are certainly opportunities to reduce costs by bundling - especially with the Sony PlayStation VR, which requires a game console to work - there is no new technology that would appeal to consumers this holiday season.
In addition, the Oculus Quest - a standalone headset that promises VR quality for PC-based headphones like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive - is set to hit the market in 2019, which is likely to impact the rollout of existing VR offerings this holiday season.
Consumers who were considering buying a VR headset this year can expect to expect whether the new Oculus headset will provide an excellent experience.
These factors indicate that the VR headset market is at a crossroads. As content providers look for a game or application that attracts key consumers to expand their audience, new uses emerge that may act as a catalyst to bring VR into the mainstream.
While the outlook for this holiday season is poor, future headphone iterations may prove more appealing to consumers.
Certainly, VR’s current state is not what many experts expected based on their forecasts in 2014. However, there are interesting developments on the horizon that could drive VR to new heights.
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