Samsung’s recent price reduction of its Virtual Reality headset, the Gear VR, to just $99 has made waves in the tech media as a strategy which could move this market past the early adopters and into the mainstream. According to Tech Times, the low price and excitement regarding the product were the key reasons it sold out on Amazon and at Best Buy within a day of its release.
Another barrier to widespread adoption of this technology has fallen, and everyone is speculating if this will cause VR to finally catch on with everyday consumers.
Right now, it seems that the only reasonable answer is: it depends. For investors looking to get in on this budding product category, there’s a lot that needs to happen before it becomes a lucrative opportunity.
The gaming industry is often seen as the genesis of VR for the everyday consumer. One of the first forays into the world of consumer-grade VR products was Sega’s VR headset, which launched in 1991. However, both Sega’s product and Nintendo’s attempt – the Virtual Boy – faded quickly into obscurity. The typical post-mortem explanation for this is that the hardware and software were not ready to deliver a true VR experience
In 2010, Palmer Luckey raised enough money to build the first Oculus VR headsets. His prototype displayed only 2-D images and was extremely cumbersome for the wearer, but it boasted a 90-degree field of vision, something Luckey’s predecessors weren’t able to accomplish.
The buzz surrounding this innovation, and the company that spawned it, turned out to be the spark for the rush toward VR consumer products. Facebook purchased Oculus for $2 billion, Sony started developing a VR headset as a companion to its Playstation gaming systems, and smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and HTC are building VR headsets into their own ecosystems of products
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