Whenever a new product is announced and subsequently released, folks always want to know what existing standards it will support. Many face this when new video game consoles come out, wondering if they can ditch their old systems for the newer, shinier systems without losing the library they’ve been building up for years. The same goes with the smartphone world, where new phones get announced all the time but not all old accessories and cables will work with newer units. With the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge Samsung surprised many people by not using the new USB Type-C reversible standard port, rather sticking to the old tried and true microUSB port instead.
The advantage of sticking to an old port like this is of course peripheral compatibility, and which peripheral better to ask about than the Gear VR? Existing Gear VR owners will be happy to know that if they buy one of the new Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge phones they won’t have to upgrade their actual Gear VR units. While this won’t be a problem for those who are able to pre-order the phones, which ship with a brand new free Gear VR for all pre-order customers, those not able to get in on the pre-order action won’t have to sweat it. Even if you don’t have an existing Gear VR unit this bodes well for the second hand market, as the Gear VR will continue to retain its value since it’s not obsolete.
Samsung has been making a huge push for VR lately, and it’s obvious in how well supported the Gear VR is. On stage at Mobile World Congress 2016 today we saw Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney and even the Gear 360 make its debut alongside the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. This huge push for VR and all the support from content creators, not to mention adding in free VR headsets for pre-order customers shows how dedicated Samsung is to making VR the next big thing. Now that smartphones have been slowing down in both sales and anticipation worldwide it’s up to tech companies to find what’s new and hot in the market, and VR certainly seems to be cooking quite nicely.
