Opportunities for VR Hardware Differentiation Crumble as Competitive Focus Shifts to App Stores, Audience Engagement and Regional Market Needs

To create separation between platforms, companies will have to emphasize software and application stores/platforms along with tailoring products to consumers and commercial end users. HTC is an early leader in this regard, making strong inroads into the professional markets, and catering products and platforms to best suit regional differences, with strong investment in China. Other companies like Sensics are helping companies move from off-the-shelf products to solutions that more optimally suit specific applications and needs (e.g., destination based VR).    

To create separation between platforms, companies will have to emphasize software and application stores/platforms along with tailoring products to consumers and commercial end users. HTC is an early leader in this regard, making strong inroads into the professional markets, and catering products and platforms to best suit regional differences, with strong investment in China. Other companies like Sensics are helping companies move from off-the-shelf products to solutions that more optimally suit specific applications and needs (e.g., destination based VR).    

"Whether it is common hardware platforms or cross-platform standards that help bring uniformity to VR, the market will benefit with more equitable user experiences across the board and stronger incentives for developers to invest in VR applications – a similar dynamic has occurred within the game console space, albeit VR's future should have fewer ecosystem barriers than those erected by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. While ABI Research believes Google will maintain the largest share of active users over the forecasting period, the market will develop best if market shares of individual platforms take a back seat to the overall growth of the market in aggregate," concludes Inouye.

These findings are from ABI Research's VR Platforms and Storefronts report. This report is part of the company's Video, VR & OTT research service, which includes research, data, and analyst insights. 

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