Virtual Reality is the next platform, where anyone can create and experience anything they want. As of for now, VR is mostly used for games and entertainment, but that's quickly evolving, and one day you're going to be able to put on a headset and that's going to change the way that you live, work and communicate.
So imagine being able to sit in front of a camp-fire and hang out with your friends any time that you want, or watch a movie in a private theatre with your friends any time you want. Imagine holding a group meeting or event anywhere that you want, welcome to the untapped world of Virtual Reality, that is according to Face Book's Boss Mark Zuckerberg.
Phone makers are trying to renew consumer appetite by luring their attention to virtual reality headsets that can be paired with their devices to view videos and play games. The emphasis on virtual reality comes as the increasingly-saturated smartphone market begins to slow.
Research firm Trend Force predicts global smartphone sales will grow by 8.1 percent in 2016, down from 10.3 percent last year. The headsets which went on sale in November is powered by technology developed by Oculus, a virtual reality company Facebook bought in 2014 for $2 billion (1.8 billion euros).
Mozilla Research launched an experimental build of Firefox with VR-enablers bundled, empowering developers to turn any website into a virtual reality experience. No plugins, installs or expensive development tools required.
VR presents immense challenges, but also immense opportunities right from latency to interaction design, Mozilla Research is looking forward to make the web an awesome platform for VR with Air Mozilla.
Even the Google Store is now selling VR headsets, with three models to choose from. You can pick up Cardboard from Google, the View-Master from Mattel or a travel-ready model from Goggle.
Samsung, the world's number one smartphone maker, announced at the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona that it would give away its Gear VR headset for free with every pre-order for its new flagship Galaxy S7 phone.
Thousands of people donned the headsets which have a slot where you insert a smartphone to view the presentation of the firm's new phones at a Barcelona congress centre on the eve of the start of the fair. The crowd gasped and applauded as the new phones appeared to be floating in the air before their eyes.
Rival South Korean tech firm LG, which lost money from its mobile business last year, unveiled its own virtual reality goggles to go with its new G5 smartphone at the fair. Struggling Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has decided to refocus completely on virtual reality and away from smartphones.
The smartphones virtual reality headsets sparked huge interest at the trade fair in Barcelona as long lines formed outside a pop-up virtual reality theatre set up by Samsung that allowed people to experience a roller coaster ride using the Gear VR headset as their seats rocked from side to side.
Tilt your head back with the headset on and you see a clear blue sky. Turn sideways and you see the rest of an amusement park and mountains in the distance. Look down and you see a fast approaching plunge.
People gripped the arms of their seats even though they were not moving and raised their hands in the air during the simulations.
Research firm CCS Insight predicts the number of sold virtual reality devices will grow from 2.2 million last year to 20 million in 2018, with smartphone-based devices representing the vast majority.
More sophisticated virtual reality headsets that run on an expensive computer will remain a niche product because of their high cost, though some users of the smartphone virtual reality headsets complained of being able to see the pixels in the images being broadcast.
"The quality of the systems is not quite there yet, when virtual reality goes mainstream we won’t be looking at social media we will be almost standing inside it. " said Edward Tang, founder and president of Avegant which makes virtual reality headsets.
( Sources and Citation : http://www.itv.com/news/2016-02-22/mark-zuckerberg-virtual-reality-is-the-next-platform/ )
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