12 Most Frequent Questions about Virtual Reality – Answered

Virtual Reality is here to stay and in this article we reveal answers to the most frequent questions we get from potential clients, when we meet them in person and online.

Read on and discover the answers to 12 questions about virtual reality in one place.

Virtual Reality (VR) is the full immersive 3D experience that the users receive with VR wearables. This computer generated environment is interacted by a person who either becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and is capable of manipulating objects or performing a series of actions.

Nowadays VR devices can be classified into three distinct groups: Mobile based VR, PC based VR, and Standalone VR Devices.

VR which is mobile based can also be classified into two groups: cardboard and plastic. Cardboard VR is the cheapest option and is easily branded and spread out to customers. The other plastic VR devices are a bit more expensive then the cardboard option and have a range of producers. VR Viewers such as Homido VR are an example of a good quality product for experiencing VR on a variety of phones. On the other hand, Samsung has a dedicated VR viewer that works exclusively with their range of mobile phones, called the Samsung Gear VR.

As much as VR on a mobile device is convenient for promotions, events, etc. VR on a PC is a whole other ballgame! You could say that it’s thanks to the superior performance of the PC’s hardware and you wouldn’t be wrong. Using a desktop computer and a VR HMD is a great combination if you’re going for quality over quantity! Some of the hardware that we have experience with, and have used it to produce cutting edge VR experiences for our clients include HTC Vive and the newly released Vive Cosmos, as well as one of the first companies to bring out a state of the art headset, Oculus Rift. All of these require a high end PC to run, but the results are more then rewarding, and will leave your customers with their jaws dropped!

Last but certainly not least in this classification, the standalone VR devices are certainly a fresh addition to the world of VR HMD’s. They are a mix of both worlds from the groups above, mobile and PC. This group offers the flexibility of using a mobile device, and the extra quality of a dedicated VR HMD, which we see on the PC HMD’s. The main players here are not new though, its Oculus, with two main products, the Oculus GO, as an entrant option and Oculus Quest for more advanced users. HTC has brought the Focus to the party, a bit more expensive take on the standalone headset.

It really depends on what you want to do, what the size of your target audience is and what budget you have.

The VR applications for Google Cardboard and Homido, can be developed for all mobile phone platforms and optimized in terms of content. The great advantage is that apps can be used by large number of people, and HMDs are at lower end in terms of cost. But if you need more control over content, and better quality of graphic you might opt for Samsung Gear VR, in which case you can invest in Samsung VR Gear and matching Samsung phone (on Android platform).

Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require dedicated PC platform, hence they come at a higher price tag. Still, they can support high quality graphics and offer greater means of control than HMDs intended for mobile platforms. VR applications can be made for PC platform which are dedicated to specific company use case and targeted at limited users, at present.

Not really, because several companies have decided to include web-based Virtual Reality for that very reason: they do not want people to wait for VR headsets to disseminate or that people consume VR content on their mobile phones. Instead, web-based VR means that people can open the browser, click on the link and access VR content. In the end, many VR companies want to democratize VR experience and to enable it to as many people as possible, which also leads them to bigger market opportunities.

You can start small and then expand your head-mounted display ‘‘park’’. New York Times shipped thousands of Google cardboards to draw attention to one of their campaigns and to reach their readers directly in their households. However, you can choose to go for one particular brand and one item i.e. gear and then branch out.

Virtual Reality, like Augmented Reality, has been already applied in tourism, retail, real estate, education , healthcare, marketing, and many other verticals. The great argument in favour of VR is that both Fortune 500 brands and boutique companies that want to be on the frontier of innovation are using them.

Over the next 12-36 months, Virtual Reality solutions will become mainstream in all client-facing industries so as to provide stronger and more immersive experience. Goldman Sachs team indicated in their comprehensive VR/AR Report the size of each industry and the number of registered VR/AR users until now so it is worth checking out.

Statista outlined the mutual size of the global augmented and virtual reality market size for the period 2016 – 2020. In 2016 it is 6.1 billion USD, in 2017 it is 13.9 billion USD.

According to the most recent reports by IDTechEx, in 2030 the AR, VR, and MR Market is estimated to be well over $30 Billion!

If we look at Chinese market alone, Bloomberg indicated that their VR market will be $8.5 billion. Since China is working hard to push low-cost model and plenty of their brands are shipping headsets, their gigantic companies may leapfrog the US giants. For example, the Ritech headset is selling over 100,000 units monthly for $20.

Another piece of statistics, worth considering is included in the report of Grand View Research, Inc. This company estimated that the global virtual reality (VR) market is expected to reach USD 48.5 billion by 2025.

There are plenty of ways that you company can stand out thanks to VR solutions. Certainly, Virtual Reality helps your potential clients engage with your product, service and content longer through the lens of VR (literally and virtually). Secondly, you can see if in your niche so far Virtual Reality has been applied (most probably it was) and how you feel about that.

Sometimes, you may get inspired by Virtual Reality solutions across different markets, geographies and industries and create something completely new that will leave both your loyal clients and competitors speechless. The first ones get speechless as they are proud of you and the second ones because they cannot keep up with your pace.

We have written in detail about making an informed choice in this article, which will enable you to avoid mistakes and decide much better which VR company to hire.

In a nutshell, you should consider and assess team’s experience, portfolio and a range of clients, business processes, international experience, and innovativeness. All these factors will help you decide with greater accuracy if the company you choose can really deliver.

Also, customer experience is so important. If you are treated equally before you become a client and afterwards when you are in a funnel or when you bought something, this indicates that the company truly cares about its clients. So often clients are forgotten or even neglected after they made a purchase and had a transaction with the company.