The nascent virtual reality (VR) market had a pretty stagnant 2022, but when/if Apple’s widely expected mixed-reality (AR + VR) headset drops this year, some analysts say it could send the VR market surging into the mainstream.
Alexandra Garfinkle for Yahoo Finance:
In 2022, sales in the VR market were down about 2% year-over-year to $1.1 billion, according to research from NDP, while Meta (META) has reportedly struggled to retain consumers’ interest in its new Meta Quest Pro, cutting prices just last week. However, if Apple enters the market this year as they’re expected to, it could start to change how the general public views VR.
“In VR, we haven’t hit that hockey-stick moment yet, where this is just going to just take off like we saw with smartphones,” said IDC Research Director Ramon Llamas. “We’re not yet at the place where people look at this and say, ‘Wow, I just want to put that on,’ but Apple just might help create that hockey-stick moment.”
Apple is perhaps the most trusted brand in the tech industry, and it’s in Apple’s DNA to make things so gosh darn easy to use,” he told Yahoo Finance. Additionally, Apple’s “broad ecosystem of devices and applications and services” could provide a wide variety of entrance points for consumers, as they move back and forth seamlessly between between, say, Apple TV and applications from their Apple Watches or iPhones.
“How would you like to watch Apple TV on your VR headset? There’s a certain flow there that could add up,” said Llamas.
MacDailyNews Take: When Apple does a VR headset, VR headsets will finally have been done right. Once Apple shows how it’s supposed to be done, cue the knockoff brigade – Meta, Samsung, Sony, HTC, etc.
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The VR headset market will still be stagnant, no matter what Apple does. Wearing a face covering headset looks silly and has little practical use other than some games maybe….