Commentary

63% In U.S. Say They Are Not Aware Of Virtual Reality

The following was previously published in IoT Daily:

Sales and public perception of virtual reality headsets have room to grow, with low levels of awareness among U.S. households, and lower-than-expected sales.

A study from Parks Associates found that more than half (63%) of U.S. households say they are not familiar with or know nothing about VR.

Younger generations appear to be more familiar with virtual reality, with twice as many Millennials saying they are interested in purchasing a VR headset by the end of this year. Within that age range, 12% of males said they intend to purchase a VR headset and 5% of females said the same, according to Parks.

Oculus’ Rift leads the market when it comes to familiarity of virtual reality headsets.

Here is the ranking of VR brand familiarity within U.S. households:

  1. Oculus Rift
  2. Samsung Gear VR
  3. PlayStation VR
  4. Google Cardboard
  5. HTC Vive
  6. Microsoft HoloLens (mixed reality)

Of those who have tried virtual reality, almost all said they enjoyed the experience, while the resulting actions appear to be relatively fragmented.

Almost half intend to purchase a VR headset after experiencing virtual reality, with around a third saying they enjoyed the experience, but do not plan to purchase a headset, followed by 15% who purchased a headset.

Sales numbers, for PlayStation VR in particular, have been lower than initially projected, based on new numbers from SuperData Research.

While initial projections called for between 1.4 million and 3 million PlayStation VR units to be shipped by the end of 2016, the actual number of units sold globally is expected to only reach about 745,000, according to SuperData.

Currently, about 3.4 million households in the U.S. own a virtual reality headset, according to the Parks study.

5 comments about "63% In U.S. Say They Are Not Aware Of Virtual Reality".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 29, 2016 at 1:15 p.m.

    If we were able took the 37% who claimed they were familiar with AI as used in this context and asked them to provide a broad explanation---or definition---of the term, I doubt that 10% could pass such a test.

  2. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 29, 2016 at 1:48 p.m.

    Of course, I meant "If we were able to take"----- not, "If we were able took".

  3. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin replied, December 29, 2016 at 2:53 p.m.

    The researchers typically define the term for the respondents rather than just using the term "artificial intelligence" or AI, Ed. But to your point, if asked, the definitions likely would vary widely.

  4. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin, December 29, 2016 at 2:54 p.m.

    The researchers typically define the term for the respondents rather than just using the term "artificial intelligence" or AI, Ed. But to your point, if asked, the definitions likely would vary widely. 

  5. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 29, 2016 at 3:39 p.m.

    Thanks, Chuck. While it may not always apply, in many studies of this nature, people who agree to cooperate are inclined to give positive answers to a greater extent than is real---it's called "the yea saying syndrome"----because they wish to impress the interviewer, or the question is about some activity or something else that they would like to be associated with. Hence often inflated claims about "binge viewing" or smartpohne video viewing; sometimes the negative takes precedence, as when asked about TV commercial avoidance-- a question-that generates many more, "always do it", answers than what actually happens.

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