Scalper1 News
Apple ( AAPL ) hasn’t announced plans to join the virtual reality headset craze, but third-party hardware companies have designs on using the iPhone for VR products. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted Tuesday that third-party hardware firms would start selling VR products that use the iPhone as a display this fall. These devices would be much like the Samsung Gear VR headset, which uses Samsung smartphones as the display. IonVR, a privately held company specializing in third-party VR hardware, expects to have a headset in the fall that will will allow the iPhone to be used for VR and will cost between $100 and $200, Munster said. The iPhone already can be used with Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google Cardboard and Mattel ’s ( MAT ) View-Master, but those aren’t true VR experiences, he said. Virtual reality is much talked about as a hot new technology, and there are concerns that it could follow the boom and bust of 3D TV. Munster says that VR will not flop like 3D, in part because of the greater level of investment in VR and its cousin, augmented reality. Facebook ( FB ), which owns Oculus VR, is firmly committed to its success, he said. “On top of that, Apple, Google and Sony ( SNE ) are expected to all be making significant investments in VR/AR over the next five years,” he said. “We believe these investments will lay the groundwork for VR /AR becoming the next computing paradigm.” Sony is in one of the best positions to capitalize on VR, Munster said. “It has the content, distribution and user base (36 million PS4 consoles sold) to allow VR to grow rapidly,” Munster said. “We have also been impressed by Sony’s demos of ‘London Heist’ and ‘Walk The Wire,’ and the company has a slate of approximately 80 games which will be available at launch, which is expected late this year.” Oculus Rift is set to ship on March 28 in 20 countries, including the U.S. It will be available at select retailers in April. It will cost $599 and require a high-end PC with a graphics card. Bundles of the Oculus Rift headset and “Oculus-ready” PCs start at $1,499. Meanwhile, Samsung is promoting its smartphone-based Gear VR, which uses Oculus technology. Gear VR costs $99 and requires a newer Samsung Galaxy phone. Another VR headset, the HTC Vive, is due to go on sale April 5 and cost $799. Like the Oculus Rift, Vive requires a high-end PC with dedicated graphics processor. Vive is a collaboration between smartphone maker HTC and video game developer Valve. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News