For being a company that has always dealt with social networks, Facebook has succeeded in an unsurprising undertaking: dominating the virtual reality sector. The merit is above all of the success of the Oculus Quest 2: it is estimated that the viewer launched in October 2020 – thanks also to the affordable price, around 350 euros – sold about 5 million units in the first six months alone, a share that equates to 75% of the entire market.
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To reward Oculus – a company purchased by Facebook in 2014 for 2 billion dollars – was the decision to focus everything on stand-alone devices, which do not require to be connected to a computer or console to work and therefore allow freedom of movement. much higher. To date, 80% of VR (virtual reality) devices sold are of this type: in fact, Quest 2 is joined by the small market shares of the HTC Vive Focus (a tool for professional use costing over 1400 euros) and few other devices.
In short, that of Oculus and Facebook is an enviable position, in a market that at the moment should be worth around 5 billion dollars – a small thing, compared to the almost 180 billion turnover of video games – but for which a growth of 40% on an annual basis between now and the next five years. Growth that could further increase if Facebook’s own ambitions are realized, whose much talked about metaverse – the digital and immersive world into which we should transfer part of our daily lives – will be based mainly on virtual reality.
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Are we facing yet another monopoly of the technological world? It is still too early to say, especially since there are many competitors aiming to make themselves heard in this sector. One of the most promising is the aforementioned HTC, which not only has shown that it can make devices as expensive as they are high-performance, but has recently launched the new HTC Vive Flow.
Unlike the competition, this viewer is not designed for video games and could marry well with the metaverse (which HTC is also planning): the viewer is in fact not bulky and very light (thanks to the separation of the battery), while the only controller you use is your smartphone. In a nutshell, the Vive Flow is designed for stationary and prolonged use: however, it remains to be understood who is willing to spend 569 euros for a viewer with still very low uses.
The eyes of many analysts are instead focused on Sony: the Japanese giant that already in 2016 introduced a VR viewer to be connected to the PlayStation, but which has never updated or renewed this model since then. As a result, Sony’s market share in virtual reality went from 22% in 2019 to 16% last year, then plummeting to 5% this year. However, the wait is about to end: Sony should in fact launch its PSVR 2 next year, leveraging the over 10 million Playstation 5 already sold and – if it were compatible with previous models – also over 115 million. of PS 4.
Then there is the Chinese competition, which is rapidly advancing: DP-VR, a Shanghai company, has conquered about 6% of the virtual reality market, focusing above all on the educational and professional sector, while Pico Interactive has been acquired. from Bytedance (the company behind TikTok) last August for $ 775 million. And finally there is Apple, which with the calm that has always distinguished it should introduce its Mixed Reality viewer (which therefore combines augmented reality with virtual reality) between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
Although virtual reality has not yet broken through, the US, Japanese and Chinese tech giants are all preparing their entry into a market that is expected to reach $ 36 billion in 2025: “We are seeing great growth in both the corporate sector than in the commercial one ”, wrote Tom Mainelli of the analysis company IDC in a very recent report. “We think the growth of virtual reality will continue into the future as use cases for both businesses and consumers increase. (…) We must also keep an eye on how the virtual reality experience will go from simply consuming content to connecting with other devices, to provide seamless experiences at home and at work ”.
Virtual reality represents, according to analysts, one of the most promising markets of the near future. Considering the many difficulties it is already going through, Facebook will do well not to underestimate the many competitors who are preparing to throw the gauntlet at him.
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