The Face Race. A List of Companies developing Virtual Reality Headsets
Over the coming weeks we’ll be updating all key KZero charts and reports relating to the Consumer Virtual Reality market. The first Q3 update related to our market sizing for consumer VR, which can be read here.
Turning our attention to the launch timings for companies developing HMDs for virtual and augmented reality, hot of the press is our Device Spectrum visual, shown below.
So, there’s things we know, things we are assuming (based on rumours, conversations and other intel) and things we don’t know. Mashing all of this together produces the visual above.
Focusing on HMDs (and Head Mounted Consoles), since our last update the Oculus DK2 has started to ship. In terms of next entrants, we expect the Samsung Gear VR to be available at least as a developer version within the next three months. The GameFace Labs Mark V also falls into this timing bracket.
Looking out to six months from now (Q1 2015), there could potentially be significant activity in the consumer VR market with Avegant, Sony, VRELIA and others possibly bringing their devices to market. Also keep an eye on companies developing products that cross both virtual and augmented reality sectors, such as MergeVR and Seebright. Both of these companies appear to be building momentum.
Can all these companies penetrate the same market? This is highly unlikely, so we expect the road maps of these manufacturers to take different paths. Some will be solely for gamers, others will leverage their portability (vs. wired or PC-based set-ups) and others will go after more casual users with virtual cinema and social applications. And let’s not forget that some will never get to market.
We’ve also just released the Q3 update for the Hardware radar. Check it out here.
Further information:
