Maybe I'm too old, but I don't know a single person with Oculus, not even among my younger coworkers.
I don't discount that it could be the next big thing, because wtf do I know, but it feels very niche to me, and certainly not something that can get the engagement like a phone can. And in terms of money, Facebook itself is a printing press, I wonder what the business model is for this? Selling games or experiences? Billboards in an AR world?
Addicting people to living in a fake world where anything is seemingly possible, and then exploiting it. Basically the same M.O. as their other products, but on a "next level."
I got one. My honest opinion is that it's potential is immense, but I wouldn't suggest anyone to get one atm.
Professional headsets will likely become more widespread over the coming years and I fully expect that most desk jobs will replace their displays with a headset... But that's still at least 10 yrs off, likely longer. A prerequisite would be that it's not as stuffy/heavy to wear, but that's already happening at a surprising rate.
It also makes remote contacts (i.e. remote work, family calls etc) very different, as oculus just added face tracking to their newest headsets... So your avatars face mirrors your real face.
The presence you feel in these contexts is hard to explain and has to be experienced imo.
That's hard to answer, because i can only say it depends to both questions.
let me repeat what i said earlier: i don't think that the current generation of consumer headsets is ready for prime time, all of the reasons are however solvable. that's why i used the cop-out of "at least 10 years off".
theoretically i can use it indefinitely without getting a headache. It however always feels like a slap in the face if even the smallest hiccup or framedrop happens.
Another thing thats hard to stomach is movement done by controller. Its (for me) doable while sitting down, but if i stand up while moving with the controller... lets just say i usually stop within 5 minutes if i'm forced to do that.
the low pixel density on consumer headsets make it hard to consider them for anything but casual gaming usage, even though I think that VR-Headset gaming will always be a pipe-dream.
It would be a different story if fantasy-style VR Capsule ever become a thing, letting the player also have touch etc, but the First Person View that current games try use is in my experience just too lacking with a purely visual headset, especially with the poor input quality like we have today.
The potential I see in VR Headsets is really in productivity while sitting in front of a desk using a regular mouse and keyboard. 8k displays would be a minimum for that and once you target that market new designs become viable again, as few people would want to wear such a headset directly on their face. Letting in your surroundings will be less of an issue if it's not aiming for complete isolation/immersion and onboard graphics will likely be less of an issue if the device doesn't have to render a complex video game scene.
That's my experience, too. I know a lot of people who are very into tech, across the entire age range. I don't know a single person who owns one of these. But I think they're mostly used by the hardcore gamer crowd, and I only know a couple of those (and neither have a VR headset).
The only person with Oculus is Mark Zuckerber as he owns Facebook that owns Oculus. Maybe you mean Quest or Rift? I personally don't know anybody who owns an iPad.
I don't discount that it could be the next big thing, because wtf do I know, but it feels very niche to me, and certainly not something that can get the engagement like a phone can. And in terms of money, Facebook itself is a printing press, I wonder what the business model is for this? Selling games or experiences? Billboards in an AR world?