It’s not you, it’s them. Consumers just don’t want to be tied down, especially when it comes to virtual reality (VR).
According to new data from Tractica, mobile is “leading the charge” into the virtual future, accounting for an estimated 88 percent of all consumer-grade VR headsets sold in 2016. And that momentum is expected to continue for years.
Tractica in its Thursday report said mobile headsets are forecast to represented three-quarters of annual consumer head-mounted display (HMD) shipments in 2021, at which point the firm noted the total market for mobile VR hardware and content is expected to reach $10.9 billion worldwide.
“While VR for mobile is currently a less immersive experience than PC and console-based VR, the gap will narrow considerably between 2017 and 2021,” Principal Analyst Mark Beccue said. “There is a real possibility that mobile will become not only the choice for simpler VR experiences, but the choice for the vast majority of all VR experiences.”
In particular, Beccue pointed to advances in optics, processing efficiencies, cloud computing, software application development, and streaming – as well as increased access to higher-quality broadband – as areas where improvements will help accelerate the general availability of better VR experiences.
“Mobile VR has a tremendous amount of momentum, but there is much work still to be done,” Beccue observed. “VR is an extremely complex technology and there are many obstacles to a frictionless, optimized user experience.”