The expert view Tim Danton

Over the past six months I’ve spoken to numerous companies involved in virtual reality, whether that’s content producers such as Future Visual ( see issue 277, p22) or workstation makers such as HP. I’ve also read more analyst reports on the subject than I care to mention.

While the industry isn’t yet booming – it didn’t meet analysts’ sales expectations for 2016, hitting around $4 billion rather than the predicted $5 billion – it resembles a cobra coiled for action. Initial problems around motion sickness, which affects about one in seven people who strap on a VR headset, should be solved by increased frame rates and reduced lag. Prices of high-end headsets such as the Oculus Rift are coming down, while the growing power of the processors inside our phones means that the “mobile VR experience” – which is surely the key – is only going to get better.

At the same time, we’re seeing the quality of the end product improve. The plague of cheaply shot 360-degree videos are being replaced by carefully thought-through films with narratives that take full advantage of the viewer’s immersion in the virtual world.

And the businesses that are creating the content are moving away from doing it for marketing reasons – just to get some buzz around a product – and towards projects that see a return-on-investment. That could be due to reduced costs, such as training staff in a VR simulator rather than an expensive, real-life environment, or through increased sales such as the Audi Configurator example. Others are using it for rapid prototyping, with car manufacturers again leading the way.

This doesn’t mean that all businesses should rush in. To create something compelling, you’ll either need in-house expertise to develop the content or work with a third-party specialist. You may also need to invest in new hardware, whether to create the content or deliver it to the user (not to mention test it yourselves).

I come back to my coiled cobra. He hasn’t yet struck, but he’s hissing. If you hesitate too long before investigating how VR – and augmented reality – could help cut costs or drive sales, then you may find your competitors strike first.