2016 has been a good year for Samsung Electronics. Their VR headset launch dubbed as Samsung Gear VR, has been sold 5+ million units worldwide. In the CES 2017 keynote, it was confirmed that the November 2015 release has been a big hit among the masses. This also means that the soaring popularity of mobile VR could prompt more companies to have their own VR headsets floated in.
Highlights of Samsung’s VR endeavor of 2016
Samsung Electronics America president Tim Baxter announced this god news in the opening speech. Samsung partnered with Oculus for this project. This was the first high-quality mobile VR solution in 2015 which went head-to-head against Oculus Rift. Due to its aggressive marketing, better content development and the brand name, Samsung was successful in its endeavor.
Not only this, another highlight for Samsung this year was the Gear 360 camera. This camera is capable of taking 360 degree videos and images. Such cameras are very useful in shooting videos for VR content development. The CEO revealed that users consumed over 10 million hours of video in VR.
The keynote highlighted many of Samsung’s various products and their success, including the Gear range. With 2017 seeming like the best time for VR to leap, it is to be seen how Samsung upgrades its headset to reach out to a larger market. Also, Gear already has a notable competition from Google Daydream who has launched its own content platform recently. So maybe Samsung takes this route to bring in their own exclusive content marketplace for the VR users.
Till now there has been no mention of a standalone VR product. A big hint was dropped at Samsung Developers’ Conference 2016, but CES had no mention of it. The Odyssey rumor of its latest VR product came out to be a gaming laptop. This may potentially be VR enabled. This also means that Samsung officially launched its Odyssey range, and we may not give up on the hopes of an Odyssey VR headset.
