Aug. 30, 2014
The most excited field in the wearable market is virtual reality. Weeks ago the photos of the Gear VR, Samsung's first virtual reality headset have leaked. Samsung is preparing an entry of its own in early September 2014, but it seems that its tech rival LG is also looking to expand into this fledgling industry and has beaten the company to the punch with a consumer VR headset for the LG G3.
Vortex VR announced that it is joined by industry icons 3D Systems, LG Electronics MobileComm USA, & VR pioneers GameFace Labs, to bring to market the world's first consumer Mobile VR solution. Its VRTX I, a lightweight VR Mobile phone case and Head Mounted Display (HMD) device with a 100⁰ field of view, is tailor-made for the new LG G3 Quad HD smartphone.
The headset is 3D printed in partnership with 3D Systems, which fabricated it using Selective Laser Sintering process.
According to KZero, over the five year period from 2014 to 2018, Head Mounted Virtual Reality Display (HMD) penetration is forecasted to grow from 0.05% to 8.8%, HMD unit sales is forecasted to grow from 200k to 38.8M, and cumulative unit sales by 2018 is estimated to be 83.3M. Input control device unit sales are expected to grow from 2k to 10.2M and cumulative unit sales of input devices are estimated to be 17.7M units. HMD Revenues are estimated to grow from $70M to $3.8B, with cumulative HMD revenues estimated to reach $11.6B. Input Device Revenues are estimated to grow from $600k to $766M, with cumulative input devices revenues estimated to reach $1.6B. Software revenues are estimated to grow from $960k to $4.6B, with cumulative software revenues estimated to reach $8.4B. This leads to an overall addressable market of over $21B for the years 2014-2018.
"This is an exciting project for 3D Systems, one that combines the power and flexibility of 3D printing with the incredible advancements in virtual reality and wearables," said Cathy Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer, 3D Systems.
The LG G3's 5.5-inch Quad HD display enables nearly double the resolution of any mobile or other available HMD today, according to LG. It features a 2560x1440 display panel, which is similar to GameFace Labs' own wireless Android-based VR HMD, GameFace. The better picture quality will provide a much more intense virtual reality experience for users.
Vortex VR says the 3D printing technology allows them to rapidly bring the product to market. ""This is our inaugural product and we will be following up with products and services that will cover the entire ecosystem and value chain in the coming months." said David Haines, Chairman and Interim CEO, Vortex VR, Inc. "Our ecosystem will include a focus on an open and scalable Android based platform to enable content developers to directly engage with the largest base of consumers, clients and partners in the VR community."
The VRTX One was announced at the annual PAX Prime convention in Seattle, Washington USA and is priced at $99.99.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Or you can just buy an Altergaze
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