What is the Future of VR and AR?

quotGetting consumers to put this gear on their face is hardquot Time Warner Investments managing director Scott Levine declared minutes into a panel on VRAR business development While mobile has a shot to take off Levine warned the crowd attending to quotget ready for a shakeout in the VR spacequotamp160Factors The high cost of headgear slow initial sales for some of that gear and a dearth of original contentMark Boldman Managing Director and partner with Peter J Solomon Co intensified the downbeat outlook with his remarks quotVirtual reality is a shortterm thing not a mainstream formquot he said amp160quotI39m more bullish on AR ultimately VR will die off in 10 yearsquot amp160Verizon Venturesamp8217 Paul Heitlinger tried to balance the panel39s general tone suggesting that while AR has the ability to win greater public acceptance VR will have its place because of the emotional response users get amp160quotOnce VR is lowcost you can transport yourself to other worlds other placesquot Heitlinger said quotThat39s a compelling narrative in its own rightquotThe underlying point from this Media Summit panel amp160If all the efforts to mainstream VRamp160and ARamp160reality goamp160in one direction that will increase the odds at least one or both reality plays flunk amp160A multipath avenue to widespread deployment is the better betEnter the growing infrastructure of smart TV sets and smart TVmaking devices and their growing acceptance by consumers amp160Nielsen released a new snapshot last week of this marketplace amp160It39s a snapshot these VRAR proponents should consider as they move their agendas forwardMore than 53 percent of all US households have a smart set or device 29 percent smart TVs23 percent special settop boxes plugins or other products like Apple TV Shield Chromecast and Roku Smart TV users are watching those sets 20 days a month on average Nielsen estimates and average two hours of use per day Households with a smart device deploy it with their TVs 15 days a month and on average threeandahalf hours per day Roku is the device most used in that household universe followed by Apple TV Amazon Fire TV and ChromecastWhat39s more Apple TV has a VR app drawing usage for more than a year in Littlstar the New Yorkbased distributor of VR content amp160All a viewer has to do in the comfort of their couch is swipe their remote control or command their Siri appliance to move and enjoy the picture in any direction they want amp160The immersive experience is good and lasting enough for them according to feedback from Littlstar officials Usage is growing and so is the catalog of programming available to watch each monthAs the smart TV infrastructure expands customers are getting accustomed to watching Netflix Hulu and similar services playing more sophisticated computergenerated games and hearing Pandora or Spotify or podcasts amp8211 not to mention ordering tickets from StubHub or pizza from Papa John39s making travel reservations via Orbitz or connecting with Airbnbamp160and Zillow amp160Because the software inside these sets and devices can be upgraded at any time we have no idea of their ultimate capacity or capabilityTo take a cue from Heitlinger that39s a compelling narrative for generators of VR and AR services to increasingly embrace this infrastructure as a distribution strategy Give Google credit for getting on board early declaring last fall at NYC TV Week that Chromecast is developing VR functionality and could join Cardboard as an important VR avenueLet39s see how soon Samsung a leader in the VRAR headgear movement brings their smart TV sets front and center into development of both mediumsIn my opinion VR and AR can only become commonplace if we have more than one way to experience them amp160Smart TV sets and devices may be a way together with headgear and mobileamp160 Is that the only way amp160Weamp8217ll never know unless the creators of these services tryUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

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What is the Future of VR and AR?

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Simon Applebaum

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What is the Future of VR and AR?

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