Today, Oculus is holding its annual developer conference, Oculus Connect, where Mark Zuckerberg has taken the opportunity to reveal what the VR company has planned for its future, including what to expect from the Oculus Rift and the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR, as well as their plans for a completely new device.
Currently, Oculus has two products on the market. The first is the Oculus Rift, a high-end VR headset that relies on a computer to work and directly competes with the likes of the HTC Vive and Sony’s PlayStation VR. The second, on the other hand, is the Samsung-branded Gear VR, which is co-developed with Oculus and offers consumers a relatively low-cost way to experience VR, though users do need a smartphone to take advantage of the headset. However, Oculus feels there is a gap in the market and has announced plans to release a currently unnamed third device, which will be completely wireless and standalone, meaning consumers will not have to worry about owning a smartphone with a high-resolution display or having a powerful computer.
Currently, the device is only in the prototype phase, hence the no name as of yet, and, unfortunately, the company did warn that developers, as well as consumers, shouldn’t expect to see this device on the market anytime soon, though the fact that they are developing a standalone device is a significant advancement in the VR market due to the fact that this may well be the device to take VR mainstream and also because, until now, the platform has largely depended on external devices, something that is sure to put off many customers from acquiring VR headsets.
With the VR market growing constantly, the release of such a device may be just what the market needs to go mainstream and tech companies may well experience a smartphone-like boom for a number of years which will surely see a number of companies succeed while other will fail. One thing that is for sure, is that things are looking increasingly promising for Facebook’s Oculus VR efforts, though it does face tough competition from the likes of the HTC in the high-end market and they may start feeling the pinch of Google’s recently announced Daydream VR headset once that goes on sale.