Lars K Jensen
Jul 20, 2017 · 1 min read

My problem with VR is primarily about the user experience. How you have to immerse yourself 100 percent into a virtual world and thereby close off everything else. I don’t think that will catch on.

So yes, it will be a niche. Right now we don’t know what the size of this niche will be, but in a recent The Economist article we can find some numbers on the current popularity of Virtual Reality:

Yet despite many pronouncements that 2016 was the year of VR, a more apt word for virtual reality might be absence. Of the 6.3m headsets that were shipped last year, most were cheaper, less sophisticated devices, such as the Samsung Gear VR, that rely on smartphones to act as their screens, according to SuperData, a games-market research firm. Only 200,000 high-end Oculus Rift headsets were sold globally (see chart). In the end, SuperData revised its first forecast, made in January last year, that total revenue from VR software and hardware would reach $5.1bn in 2016, down to $3.6bn. The actual figure for total worldwide revenue was a meagre $1.8bn. The expectations set for VR were plainly unrealistic, says George Jijiashvili, an analyst with CCS Insight, a research company. Even in the gaming industry, which has been quick to adopt the technology, people noted that Microsoft’s release of its new Xbox gaming console at the convention made no mention of VR. Oculus did not even set out a stall.

→ The Economist | Get real: A reality check for virtual headsets
(July 8th, 2017)

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Lars K Jensen

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I advice publishers, companies and organizations on digital development and how to understand their users and create real value for them. 🌐 larskjensen.dk