Impact of COVID-19 on virtual reality market
Do you know enough about virtual reality? Because COVID-19 has impacted the VR world in unanticipated ways.
Virtual Reality (VR) can be seen as a computer interface that gives an immersive 3-dimensional user experience. A stimulating environment is created through high-performance PCs and sensory equipment, i.e., gloves and headsets, etc. It imparts training tools to the health and medicine, education, aviation, science, and technology sectors apart from being used in the gaming and entertainment sectors. This technology is also useful in training and guiding students about contours through its 360 degree and 3D object visualization, as done in Expeditions app by Google Inc.
This learning process reduces enormous costs being incurred in training related aspects across the industries. It also helps in reduction in budget allocation by saving costs on training by providing longevity to equipment and modification of logistics.
Further, planning in the infrastructure development sector is amongst the significant beneficiary of this technology. It is useful for the decision-makers to preempt the structural design parameters and the costs involved through visualization. It also helps in rectifications and modifications to be carried out through error identification in designs, resulting in cost-cutting.
ThyssenKrupp Elevator Technology is capitalizing its processes through the use of this technology. It uses a VR-enabled HoloLens Head Mounted Display (MHD) to take care of customers’ mobility requirements during trade fairs and pop-up sale outlets.
VR, a key market contributor, revolutionalizes how we interact with the objects and environment surrounding us. VR has paved the way for transforming the virtual reality sector, due to its adoption across the industries.
Global Impact post-COVID19
The outbreak of COVID19 has immensely affected business activities across the globe and has been declared a pandemic by the WHO.
All the sectors, including healthcare and medicine, science and technology sectors, manufacturing and others, have made a combined effort to concentrate their energies in finding a solution to defeat and eradicate this deadly virus and once again tread on the path of progress. Several start-ups and are also extending their helping hand towards this end.
There has been a downward trend being witnessed in the display industry by adversely affecting the manufacturing operations. The major manufacturing hubs have temporarily suspended manufacturing, which has led to a substantial slump in productivity. The first examples could be Samsung, LG Display, and Xiaomi, among others that have seen suspended operations in India, China, European countries, and South Korea. Apart from adversely affecting the production process, the pandemic has reduced the consumer demand that has hit the display integrated devices, coupled with the lockdown spread across countries, worldwide.
The most daunting factor looming significant over the global economic growth is the uncertainty about the length of the present scenario arising out of the worldwide pandemic making the economic resurgence, in general, and that of the display industry very difficult to predict or anticipate.
Another daunting task lying ahead that drastically affects the growth of the virtual reality market is the factor of unaffordable prices.
The roadblock in the way of mass adoption of virtual reality is the rising cost structure of the global virtual reality market companies.
Even if the price factor is taken care of, the next issues arise from creating compelling content.
There is an increasing demand by the consumers for mobile VR experience, but it cannot be possible due to safety hazards.
There is also a need to provide uniform 5G spectrum cellular networks to enhance the working capacity of the VR devices as these perform effectively on big data transference. But, another hindrance that curbs the mass adoption is with global economic inequality.
Some Positives
On the other hand, there appears to be a silver lining across the horizon as far as the display industry is concerned, in the form of increased demand for ventilators and respirators in the health sector that may keep this industry afloat during the prevailing circumstances.
Ways and means have also been devised to keep the global economies afloat in these times of adversity, so that the advancement in businesses is not curtailed, resulting in an increased need for virtual technology conferences through audio and visual aids be replaced with various events. The technology giant Microsoft is digitally conducting its multiple manifestations, i.e., through video conferences.
Various big companies engaged in the business of education have joined together to carry out their business operations of imparting training by remote learning through virtual reality to minimize the exposure risk, arising out of the pandemic.
Examples include EON Reality, a multinational virtual and augmented reality software development company, partnering with the University of Western Cape (UWC) to create an Interactive Digital Centre (IDC) to assist in mitigating the adverse consequences of the pandemic over education sector. It is expected that this partnership would provide training solutions and simulations for various industries in Cape Town (South Africa).
