Virtual Reality to Have a Breakout Year in 2016; Oculus to Ship Out 3 Million Units This Year?

Virtual reality has been considered as one of the biggest technological advancements since the turn of the 21st century. The beginning of the preorders for the Oculus Rift now marks the start of a potential breakout year for VR devices.

Virtual reality began to gain traction in 2012 when Oculus ran a crowdfunding campaign for their virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift. During their campaign, they managed to raise $2.5 million to develop their product.

Two years later, Facebook bought Oculus for a reported $2 billion. Other investors also put money on Oculus and similar companies. The media has also begun covering an increasing number of stories regarding virtual reality and its associated technology.

"I believe virtual reality has the potential to change the way we live, work and communicate in many ways. Today is an important step towards that future," said Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post about VR technology.

According to Mercury News, Sony and HTC are also expected to release their own version of virtual reality technology within the year. It is also worth noting that Google has released a low-priced version of virtual reality. Their version is a headset made out of cardboard, which allows users to experience a virtual world using their smartphones.

J.P Gownder, an analyst for Forrester Research, believes that the price of the Oculus rift can go up to as much as over $1,000. This is because not a lot of people have computers that can run VR technology. Aside from avid gamers, there are not a lot of people with high-end parts in their computer setup.

Juniper Research estimates that the amount of VR headsets shipped out to consumer markets will grow from more than 3 million this year to an upwards of 30 million by the year 2020. These estimates include international markets as well as the domestic U.S. market.