We have seen the rise of VR take place over recent times. With hundreds of different models now being available on the market all with a wide range of prices and abilities. With everything from the $5 Google Cardboard to the HTC Vive which is currently selling for around 800 dollars!
With many new companies looking to get a piece of the pie it is likely we will continue to see new models, with massive improvements and competitive pricing being released on a regular basis.
For us the consumers this can only be seen as a positive!
This is because all distributors will be competing to produce the best product, at the best price. Causing sales, price drops and updates on a regular basis. But the question on most people's minds is how long will this be the case? Or will virtual reality fade away from the spotlight?
Direction of Virtual Reality
We have already seen that VR headsets are a great way to play games and teleport to different amazing places around the world. Although these devices have a somewhat unused route to go down yet. Marketing through these headsets offers companies the opportunity to create a whole new dimension to adverts!
Businesses take charge on new frontiers with VR
With many major companies starting to realize just how important VR could be in the future they’ve started to create content and advertisements that will work through the headsets, we’ve seen Samsung’s 3D concerts and Volvo’s VR test drives already, but what’s next?
There is already a massive increase in a number of companies looking at this as a serious advertising avenue and the excitement is only going to grow over the coming years. The popularity of VR headsets will have a massive impact on the amount of content produced for them. Although many companies such as Samsung clearly feel they will continue to rise in sales and have decided to invest $150 million into upcoming VR and AI research.
Watch 360 films in VR! Takes some getting used to at first: the fact that you can swivel your head and view an entire world.
Take a look at how the VR experience worked for Bjork fans and how VR can help house sellers get their property seen before the prospective buyers arrive!
VR used in Advertising
Although we do believe this will be the case in years to come, we don’t think it’ll be happening anytime soon and hope that companies aren’t putting all their advertising budget into this platform. There is one major reason for this, not enough people own VR headsets (and use them on a regular basis). Although sales have continued to go up in 2017 they haven’t quite reached the levels that were expected. Many people are starting to believe that the VR hype isn’t going to reach it’s predicted sales targets.
If this does turn out to be the case then we can easily count out using VR as a marketing technique
This is mainly because there will not be enough of an audience. Although a slow start to 2017 doesn’t stop the Virtual reality industry from making even larger gains over coming years. Plus the fact it is only recently that major companies started showing this industry a lot of attention, so it may take the public a while to catch on also!
For marketing campaigns to be successful on these devices there must be a large number of regular, experienced users from all around the world in different environments. In other words, VR headsets need to expand around the world and to every corner of every city!
Leading VR Hire website virtualrealityexp.co.uk state “we have seen a huge increase in rental demand for virtual reality headsets in the first quarter of 2017. This trend seems to be going only one way, and that’s up!” VR seems here to stay this time.
So then let's get back to our original question, will VR fade away? Well to put it simply no, or at least we don’t think so. Although the headsets haven’t been as popular as first projected they’ve still been picking up huge amounts of sales and making their way into homes around the globe! Plus if anything the industry as a whole will only get bigger, with giant companies such as Samsung, Sony, and HTC all looking to get their slice of the profits.
All this will lead to new investment, better and cheaper products and hopefully an increase in the number of people with VR devices.
With advancements in technology coming as quickly as they are it is hard for us to even take a guess where Virtual Reality will be in a couple of years, although we do look forward to finding out.
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