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The real definition of Mainstream!

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
Many commentators have been asking the question of what is "mainstream" and when would we be able to known when VR gets close to achieving this.

Well a recent announcement from Samsung kind of gives a good grounding on what that entails:

Samsung had sold 1 million foldable Galaxy Fold smartphones in just three months.....

https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/12/samsung-has-sold-1-million-galaxy-fold-smarthphones/?fbclid=IwAR2N...

So that kinda places the situation in perspective. As has been speculated from recent coverage:

k803718k1474.png

In over six months from the launch of the Oculus Quest a estimates 400,000 have been sold - and while the OculusVR internally had hoped for 1m sales before the end of the year that seems to be a target they may miss, even with the popularity generated by the Index - and reflecting on in this news (if these searches can be turned into sales):

 Quest dominated other VR headsets in search interest in the US. Worldwide.....

https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-quest-dominated-black-friday-search-volume-us-tied-psvr-worldwide/
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959
30 REPLIES 30

The real, real definition of mainstream...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/beer-remains-britains-top-as-85bn-sold-last-year-a4253816.html

That's actually 8.5bn, in Great Britain.

Let's just accept it for what it is.  I think it's doing quite well.
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

kevinw729
Honored Visionary


The real, real definition of mainstream...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/beer-remains-britains-top-as-85bn-sold-last-year-a4253816.html

That's actually 8.5bn, in Great Britain.

Let's just accept it for what it is.  I think it's doing quite well.



Ah, a good drink and plenty of it. Yeah we know how to go "mainstream"!, us and the Scots.

But seriously, I think the Oculus Quest has done incredibly well, and keeps on giving with the latest hand tracking announcement. I just wonder if the actual community is able to support "mainstream" - especially in the face of the new  media backlash. 
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

To me, that 0.4m is surprisingly low.  I find it quite hard to believe actually.

For consumers, i don't think the facebook thing matters - just take a look around you every day, everybody is face down on their phones.

As for making secondary accounts, makes no difference, they'll have your IP address, your MAC, you'll do it 10 times, you'll accidentally go to another website straight after, it's all linked together etc etc.

Now, for industry, it matters.
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

kevinw729
Honored Visionary


To me, that 0.4m is surprisingly low.  I find it quite hard to believe actually.
......

You are right @Hiro_Protag0nist  - this is no where near the expectations that the previous management had sold Facebook on being able to achieve at that point, and the current numbers though better are still way off targets - but I think that its an incredible achievement, just a broken business model which new games and Link may address. 

Your comments about the FB data collection may not matter to you and a number of the VR community - but it is a optic that is not really one that the community wanted or needed beyond the faithful. And already it is a dent in what had been a strong roll out, in the face of a confused message from marketing. 

We will have to wait and see if this becomes a bigger issue, or if OVR can steer the narrative away from the data harvesting and ecosystem requirements. Remember this was not part of the launch and is being sprung on a market (not a great look). especially as this is a scene that is seeing some of the promises made at the time of the acquisition, seeming to be rolled back on.   
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
£399 feels real cheap to the VR faithful who spent how much on a CV1 and then how much more on touch controllers. £399 feels cheap when an Index costs £900+. £399 feels cheap when a Rift S costs the same but then needs a PC to run it. However, £399 is expensive when compared to a PSVR if you already own a PS4. £399 is expensive if you compare to an Xbox One or PS4 right now. That £399 price of entry is why the adoption rate is low.  It really needs to be half that price or less if it's to bring in the punters.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary


£399 feels real cheap to the VR faithful who spent how much on a CV1 and then how much more on touch controllers. £399 feels cheap when an Index costs £900+.......



The "perception of quality" is a vital aspect of all consumer purchases - and to be frank, the failure of a strong message on what Quest was, to those outside the VR bubble is an issue in not reaching their targets. This has been compounded by the situation we have heard of regarding people mistaking Oculus Go as the same as Quest.

I have to state amazement on the fantastic job Oculus Texas achieved in getting the Qualcumm Snapdragon 835 (a nearly four year old processor) to achieve the performance they have managed (incredible), but there is ZERO future proofing available. This will make those systems launched next month at CES have a lead on performance, and also those products will have access to the new VR streaming standard (that OVR has shunned).

These last four months were essential to establish the Quest ecosystem as the one to adopt before the others arrived - the surprise announcement of the user tracking element, revealed now, may not be a clear optic to promote.  
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

inovator
Consultant
Mainstream.  hmmmm wait I got it! Used by almost every american and most other nations. Toilet paper is mainstream!!

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

inovator said:

Mainstream.  hmmmm wait I got it! Used by almost every american and most other nations. Toilet paper is mainstream!!


That actually is a great definition of mainstream = something we all use. Or:

"considered normal, and having or using ideasbeliefs, etc. that are accepted by most people"

With 1% of Steam users having PCVR, VR is quite the opposite of mainstream. One thing is media exposure, another is adoption. Tesla cars and Rolex watches aren't mainstream either, although many may have knowledge of such objects.

I'm not sure it's considered mainstream to have a Steam account, lol. I think in the high-income parts of this world it's mainstream to use a computer to access the internet though 😉

If we restrict the mainstream definition to people who like to play pc computer games, maybe it is mainstream to have a Steam account, but I'm not sure (Steam has about 100 mill users, it's not that much). Even with such a restriction, VR would not - at all - be mainstream. As a pc gamer, maybe it would be mainstream to use a Nvidia graphics card and a wireless controller. 2c.

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Anonymous
Not applicable


To me, that 0.4m is surprisingly low.  I find it quite hard to believe actually.

For consumers, i don't think the facebook thing matters - just take a look around you every day, everybody is face down on their phones.

As for making secondary accounts, makes no difference, they'll have your IP address, your MAC, you'll do it 10 times, you'll accidentally go to another website straight after, it's all linked together etc etc.

Now, for industry, it matters.



I think that number's just due to only being 6 months old at that point, with many people short on cash, or just spent on summer vacation to Disneyland with the kids, as well as the cost of school supplies for September. Wait until a full year has passed, especially after Christmas. Judging by posts on Reddit, they may even double that number this holiday season.