• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, April 7, 2017

Information is where you find it.  At first as I read a Variety story about which virtual reality headsets are preferred by porn viewers, I just thought it was one of those stories only readable because it is related to sex.

But that that’s not it at all. Pornography is a big driver of the virtual reality industry, just as porn was a big driver of all kinds of media, from cable to VCR to Internet. Porn is a business that is proud of its premature exclamations.

Variety’s Janko Rottgers reports that among porn VR users, “Samsung’s Gear VR  virtual reality headset is getting a lot more use than all of its VR headset competitors.” The source for this is BadoinkVR, a “fully immersive VR site” that has good reason to follow what gear is being strapped on. And according to Variety, 40% of Badoink’s usage comes from Gear VR followed by Google Cardboard with 23%.  Oculus Rift and HTC Vive accounted for 25% of downloads and PlayStation VR get 9%. Google’s Daydream VR registers a measly 3%, according to Variety.

Many of the manufacturers don’t disclose their sales but even when some, like Samsung and Sony, do, those figures those might be a little misleading because at this point many headsets are given away, possibly to a lot of people who don't know what to do with them, and don't care.

Badoink offers different files depending on headset their paying VR customers ask for, so that’s a pretty solid indication of what’s out there and what’s really being used. 

Just about a year ago at the NAB Show, VR was the belle of the ball. I’m still a big believer, and so are vendors, enough so that the big Las Vegas convention will again feature a “VR Pavilion” at the event later this month.

But it appears that virtual reality headset sales have been disappointing. Fortune recently reported. The industry shipped 6.3 million devices accounting for $1.8 billion in sales in 2016, which the magazine says is a nothing much to brag about. So the market is overwhelmed by gamers and porn viewers  “While interest in music and virtual travel is growing”  Fortune reports, it also cites a Magid Research report  that says there’s a “lack of clear value proposition besides early adopter enthusiasm.”

In February, Forrester Research also said VR won’t scale with marketers for at least three years.  Last month, RBC Capital was more pessimistic, predicting a three-to five-year window. That, to me, seems too slow in a world where, more than ever, information is being distributed by video. Taking it slow might be the advice companies take, but the future might belong to the people who elect to make it go faster.