According to IDC, the VR headset market will grow by 46.2% in 2021 as millions of consumers and enterprise users worldwide begin their journeys into virtual realities.
However, while the benefits VR can bring to the enterprise are clear, there’s still much uncertainty amongst buyers when choosing the right type of VR headset for their business.
Considering all of the above, XR Today has pulled together some of the most common mistakes people make when selecting their enterprise VR headsets.
Let’s take a look in more detail below.
Paying too little
As VR headsets’ cost continues to plummet, more companies than ever before can now capitalize on the technological trend that’s transforming the world of work – but is paying less always the best idea?
Since Oculus Quest 2’s (EUR 350) release in early 2020, the demand for affordable VR headsets has rocketed, with sales volumes expected to reach at least 3 million units in 2021. While VR headsets first found traction in the consumer gaming market, today, they are increasingly being used to enhance training, improve remote collaboration, and maximize users’ performance at the enterprise-level.
However, as tempting as it may be to choose an affordable VR headset in 2021, doing so may cause significant problems in the long run for advanced users. While Oculus Quest 2 is an excellent solution for training, collaboration, and other more general use cases, organizations invested heavily in industrial design, 3D visualization, and digital twin will likely need a more powerful tool.
Varjo’s VR-3 (EUR 3923) headset, for example, while eye-wateringly expensive, offers the high-end users the industry’s highest resolution and the most expansive field of view. It also has the world’s fastest, most accurate integrated eye tracker at 200 Hz and other elite features that can give designers, engineers, developers the edge they need to stay ahead of the competition.
Paying too much
Paying too little for a VR headset could prove disastrous for some users, but spending too much can be just as damaging. While headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens 2, Varjo’s VR-3, the Magic Leap 1, and the HTC Vive Pro all wax lyrical about providing the best-in-class VR and MR experiences, not everybody needs to spend thousands of dollars on high-level headsets to get great results.
In fact, with the arrival of more affordable headsets like Facebook Oculus Quest 2, a device with a 6X higher resolution than its predecessor, many users now only need to spend a few hundred bucks to get the results they need.
For the same reason you never see a taxi driver picking people up in a Ferrari, there’s zero use in paying over the odds for an elite VR Headset that will never achieve its real value. Considering this, it pays for buyers to make a clear honest assessment of what they hope to accomplish with their VR headset before making the purchase.
Tethered instead of Smartphone headsets
Whether to choose a tethered VR headset (one that attaches to a computer) or a smartphone VR headset is an issue under much debate for many first-time buyers.
Having been around for much longer, tethered headsets like the Oculus Rift S tend to have better games, more VR experiences, and access to more marketplaces than smartphone headsets like the Oculus Quest 2.
Yet, while both the Oculus Quest 2 and the Oculus Rift S currently sell for the same price, Facebook’s plans to phase out the latter in 2021 and the arrival of 5G both prove that VR headsets’ future is very much invested in mobile technology.
Where to go from here?
So, now that you know all the common mistakes first-time enterprise VR headset buyers make, you have all the information you need to make an informed buying decision.
However, if you’re still struggling to decide and want more information on what’s available, remember to keep an eye on XR Today this month as we’ll be reviewing our top 10 VR headsets for you in detail.
