While it’s safe to say that the technological development of virtual reality (VR) is accelerating, one has to wonder when, or if, it will really be taking off. On the one hand, hardware has finally become affordable. The latest Samsung Gear VR headset is retailing for around £75, and Facebook’s Oculus Rift is available for £370 – less than the cost of an iPhone. Headset sales are also on the rise: A recent study found that 6 per cent of the British population currently owns some form of virtual reality headwear. This might not sound like a lot, but at the equivalent time, after widespread release, tablets had only achieved a 3 per cent market penetration. Today tablets are so ubiquitous, we take them for granted. According to Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers, the challenge isn’t the hardware as such but “the slow growth in content that appeals to a mass audience.” He might very well be right. When it comes to virtual reality content, many of us are still thinking about worlds populated by three-dimensional models. If we play videogames, we can’t help but see virtual reality as an outgrowth of first-person shooter games … Continue reading How virtual reality and social media is impacting advertising