Thoughts on Virtual Reality Market Growth

• Last week, Michael Seibel, partner and CEO of the Y Combinator accelerator program, said in a blog post, “About a month and a half ago I tried the new Oculus and was completely blown away. Even though there were clear rough points – expensive computer, not wireless, limited apps – I was amazed. The next morning I had two thoughts: 1) Because VR games are so physical, gaming will no longer be perceived as an unhealthy activity. I could have used this growing up. 2) Because VR is so immersive, I can imagine myself spending significant amounts of time (hours) with a headset on, every day. As a result, gaming will not be the only significant use case for VR. My headset will steal time from other screens (tv/laptop/phone) and as a result there will be an explosion of VR consumer apps, entertainment apps, developer tools, and more. If I were starting a company today, I would look at the home screen of my phone and ask how many of these apps will have to be rebuilt for VR and which of the traditional incumbents are going to be too slow to adapt.”

• Separately, Vocatic reported that “Last year, we had a plethora of headsets that used virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), including the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear, Google's Day Dreamer, and Sony's PlayStation VR. But they were still mostly used by tech enthusiasts. In 2017, this technology might truly become more broadly adopted by the mass-market … VR technology broke far out of the gaming world last year. Marriott Hotels used VR to promote travel to exotic locales and preview their suits. Media companies like The New York Times have packaged stories in VR, and Pornhub has been developing 360-degree "experiences." Schools all over the world have used the Google Cardboard — which pairs to phones to enable viewing of VR media — to take kids on field trips around the world.”

OUR TAKE

• Virtual reality will profoundly change how we will access and share information and experience content.

• Its impact will be felt in many areas including education, entertainment, data visualization, medical therapy, design, prototyping and more.

• At the same time, many content and application developers will need to learn new skills to pursue these market opportunities