Many technological breakthroughs occurred during 2016, and one of those was the introduction of the first wave of high-end VR headsets. These are now available from a variety of manufacturers including Sony, HTC, and Oculus, and more than two million were predicted to sell before the end of the year was through. But, is two million that big deal for the next best thing to hit the consumer technology market?
It wasn’t just one particular company that had lower than expected numbers, either. Playstation was predicting to sell around 800,000; HTC Vive around 500,000 and Oculus Rift around 400,000. But, these are still really low numbers. Just as a comparison, when the first iPhones became available in 2007, Apple sold 3.3 million in just six months and by 2008, that figure had risen to more than 11 million. But, the sales projections just aren’t there for VR headsets. Why is that?
One of the main reasons that sales are slow is that these high-end VR headsets don’t come cheap. The Oculus Rift will set you back around $800, with the HTC Vive only slightly cheaper at around $700. These are not attractive prices for the average consumer. The PlayStation VR is the cheapest option at $400 although many people don’t even know it’s available as not much marketing was done for it. One of the advantages of doing little advertising is that manufacturers can manage the hype and control demand.
But, that’s a bold tactic and one that’s not guaranteed to work at all. And the thing is that everyone’s already sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next big blockbuster VR headset to appear, and so far we have nothing. Players want to see high-end products, while developers want to see paying players, but until people start parting with their hard earned cash, will any better products ever arrive? It’s one big, vicious, virtual circle that until one of the manufacturers pulls us put off we’ll be going around for quite some time.
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