Interest in any emerging technology can only be measured with tangible sales results. While Oculus, HTC, Microsoft and Sony generate most of the hype and consequentially, receive most of media coverage – a lot is riding on the wave of more affordable devices.
For example, there are over 100 VR manufacturers in mainland China, and even ASUS and GigaByte are preparing to introduce their own VR HMD’s created in collaboration with some of those vendors. But even these upcoming VR devices will be in the $100-200 range; too high-end for mass, multi-dozen-million sales. We reported recently that Lenovo India sold 10,000 Phone + VR Headset kits in less than one second, and had almost 500,000 interested buyers.
Google Cardboard apps downloads – over 10 million in fourth quater alone
Still, the crown of current world’s number one VR kit goes to Google. Ever since its launch in April 2014, Google’s Cardboard VR project is taking the world by storm – and we were not surprised to see that the company shipped no less than five million units – at the time when the VR content is far from being readily available.
Stats don’t stop there, so this is where we stand with the Google Cardboard VR project:
- 5 million shipped Cardboard VR units
- 25 million downloads of Cardboard VR applications
- 10 million downloads in Q4 2015
- 350,000+ hours of YouTube Cardboard-VR 360 videos watched
- 750,000 Cardboard VR images captured
Google’s YouTube already offers numerous videos in 360 degrees, and you can even watch sports such as Formula E racing.
