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Virtual, augmented reality developers gravitate to HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Behind games and entertainment, training and education and branded experience were most common use cases for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Augmented reality and virtual reality developers want more standards and prefer to develop for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, according to a survey of 600 professionals.

The VR/AR Innovation Report surveyed 600 professionals developing virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiments. Data was collected by the UBM Game Network, which runs a virtual reality developers conference.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said games and entertainment were their primary focus for AR and VR, with 27 percent citing training and education. Another 19 percent said branded experiences was the focus, followed by industrial and product design at 15 percent and medical and healthcare at 14 percent. Respondents could offer more than one answer.

As for platform, the HTC Vive was strongest.

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The profitability of VR, AR, and mixed reality was viewed as a long-term effort, according to the survey. Developers (39 percent) said their efforts would be profitable in the medium term, with 38 percent saying it's a long-term play.

Like IDC noted, developers said AR and mixed reality would get more market share than VR.

So what's holding the industry back? In an open answer segment of the report, developers said the lack of subsidized hardware, enterprise applications, and native experiences were big problems.

Standards were also a big issue. Aside from the obvious development issues with multiple platforms, the lack of standardization makes it hard to deal with nausea and physical discomfort.

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