I’ve had a VR headset (Gear VR) for awhile now (a few weeks? a month?), but it turns out that I never blogged about it. I don’t use it all the time, but it’s still a neat piece of technology to play around with. First, I should say that I’m not very confident in VR being an entirely new industry at the level of mobile phone or a TV. I think VR is a niche that will succeed (very well) in a couple of targeted areas (like movies) but it will never reach a level of general usage. Maybe VR::TV == tablet::smartphone?

I haven’t tried a cardboard or Virtual Boy before. The closest thing I’ve tried to VR is one of those amusement park rides where you’re in an enclosed environment with TVs all around you. The initial experience with VR is pretty great, because you are immersed and you can turn your head around to look in 360° (can’t really walk around the environment). It was fun to look at photos, videos and even play some games.

However, once you get past the initial novel factor, there is not much to do. It’s a hassle to put on the headset (especially since I have to take the phone from charger into headset, and remove glasses) and there’s nothing compelling about using VR right now. It’s analogous to channel surfing – there are so many better and more engaging things to do nowadays. Some of the videos are great and take you to places you’ve never been to (or will ever go to) but there’s nothing that keeps you coming back. Same for games, there are a couple of fun arcade-type things (I haven’t paid $$ for any real game) but nothing that has enough of a story arc to keep me coming back.

I guess I’ll give this another year or two and see what the industry is like at that point.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: techlust, vr