It’s an interesting question as to how one measures the success of a product or initiative. The hype for Virtual Reality began in 2016 where investment started to ramp up into anything VR. Rather like a rerun of the nineties but this time with technology which could actually cope.
Being a researcher through that time was interesting because products were coming out which were suddenly making one go ‘wow’. My research, for example, was conducted mainly on the HTC Vive, which for a while became ‘THE THING’. Of course, now it’s been overtaken by others and standalone, inside out tracking as inevitably it would be.
What marks a product as being successful, like the smartphone, for example? Is it the fact that everyone has one, and apparently cannot live without one? And could VR be so widely used that we’re all walking around like in Ready Player One? I think the short answer is we are a long way from that. VR is not ubiquitous and unlikely to become so in the near future. The social aspect of VR is, however on the rise. For example, VR App Rec Room has one million monthly active users. The VR market valued at around USD 10 billion in 2019 is apparently set to rise at 21% a year over the next seven years. That’s pretty healthy overall.
Is it mainstream? I don’t think so. However, the impingement of immersive applications in many fields is growing and not just games. Gaming remains a heavy focus, however, for users of VR. Other areas such as health, the military and so on, are very much on the up though perhaps not so much in the public eye. The technology is still evolving and there is definitely a split between immersive and non-immersive styles of VR.
Trends are hard to predict, and after all, we’ve also had a global pandemic which has engendered the rise of Zoom, for example. I doubt anyone thought they would be participating in so many virtual meetings, virtual learning environments and so forth at the beginning of 2019. Which simply illustrates that technology alone does not shape the future, so much as events which engage the use of it on a wider scale. And then are apps like Facebook, which come along every so often and also drive the use of particular technologies and hardware. So, as to VR, I would say it’s unlikely this will resolve into something which becomes a standard anytime soon, until something really catches the imagination of the general public. However, having said all of that, I could equally be wrong.
Useful references
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/virtual-reality-vr-market
Virtually Speaking 