How a Virtual Reality App Will Grow Your Business

May 18, 2016 | Raj Srivastav

How a Virtual Reality App Will Grow Your Business
How a Virtual Reality App Will Grow Your Business

Recently, Jeffrey O’Brien published a fantastic article in Fortune Magazine entitled “The Race to Make Virtual Reality an Actual (Business) Reality.” The article excellently laid out the case for VR and business pointing out that not only is there movement in the market, but the some of the best market analysts out there are saying the industry will be generating $150 billion a year before then end of this decade.

This may not be known to many outside the California Bay Area, but if you live here in Silicon Valley, you are required by law to watch the popular HBO show of the same name. Why am I bringing this up? Because in the last episode, one of the main antagonists purchased a company with a brand new technology.

This technology was virtually unknown in the world and as a result, had no market valuation; no one knew what it was worth simply because nobody had purchased it. When the tech was purchased, that sell essentially established what the market would pay for it. We bring all of this up because it is remarkably parallel to the story of VR and Zuckerberg’s purchase of Oculus in 2014.

Before Facebook acquired the now famous company, nobody had any idea what VR was worth, simply because nobody had paid anything for it yet. But when Zuckerberg made the purchase, all of sudden, the market had validation; since then, VR research divisions in nearly every major tech giant in the world and is quickly expanding beyond the tech world.

Mr. O’Brien covers the explosion of VR and virtual reality app development in the world of business:

• Medical training;

A live stream from a few months ago showed a doctor performing surgery, as it happened. We’ve talked about how VR apps for health care are going to revolutionize how health services are offered. Click here to read more.

• Live Sports;

Sporting events, as they happen, as if you were on the field itself. Even if VR apps for sports are only partially successful, Sports are a multi-trillion global business. Partially successful still makes multi-millionaires!

• Sports training;

This is a great way to keep athletes on point, without working them into the ground.

• Tourism;

Everything from climbing Everest to diving the Marianas Trench becomes possible in a virtual world.

• Military training

Live Battle Simulators as well as flight simulators. In fact, Lockheed Martin’s new VR room allows soldiers to experience an actual battle, preparing them for the shock of live combat. This is basically the equivalent of the X-Men’s Danger Room or Star Trek’s Holodeck. Awesome.

Of course, O’Brien also points out that people rarely accurately predict how a new piece of tech will change business. There are plenty of examples of companies inventing a new technology only to be blown away by its eventual applications. But one thing is for sure: if you don’t try, you can’t win.

This simple, but fairly obvious fact has been realized by some of the top companies in the world. Google, Sony, Amazon, Samsung, Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, even Intel – all are getting their toes wet in this industry. And by getting their toes wet, we mean investing millions (want to get some of that sweet, sweet investment money? Read more here). More importantly, hardware manufacturers are starting to make the move towards VR support as well.

The most notable of these companies is legendary Graphics processor Nvidia. Nvidia has been the name in graphics processing and gaming for decades – when they debut an entire processor chip devoted to VR pay attention. Especially when it’s coupled with Nvidia setting up a whole new VR research division.

With Gear, Virtual Reality apps for Samsung is going to be one of two where we see the earliest movement in the market, but the Oculus Rift promises to revolutionize how we process content. The Rift is pretty expensive – about a grand and half after all the necessary equipment is purchased.

The Samsung Gear (also done in conjunction Oculus) but is still pretty pricey when you consider buying a phone as well as the VR headset itself. But it’s still cheaper – and Android has a high level of potential downloads. Additionally, the early adopters of VR apps are going to be Android users (Apple probably has some sort of VR in the works, but is silent about what it might be) and early adopters are going to be the guys making VR apps. Want to be one of those early movers? No problem – contact our awesome developers and get started on your own VR app for Android or iOS.

A recent Forbes article all about the investment funding about to flood the VR market stated that “Google [is the]…most underestimated VR player on the scene.” While it’s odd to hear anyone calling Google the underdog, there is a valid point here. The Rift, Microsoft’s Hololens, The Gear VR – these are all expensive VR headsets. Expense is a huge issue in the adoption of all new products, and VR is no different.

Google, on the other hand, decided to to the other route. As we mentioned earlier, Samsung’s Gear is going to be one of the earliest and most popular VR industries; But Google’s Cardboard is going to be the other area. Cardboard is currently the most popular VR platform out there – making Google one of the most powerful players in the VR market, but without all the fame of Oculus or Gear. Cardboard has been downloaded over 5 million times in less than 2 years, by the by. Read more about its success here.

Your VR App Builders

SDI knows what a VR app needs to succeed, from the correct programming and coding to the right Design and features – even down to how to approach the market. Heck – the startup Magic Leap (now owned by Google, by the way..) raised $1.3 billion in funding – and the market as a whole is valued at $2 trillion.

We can help you get a piece of that very large pie – all you gotta do is pick up the phone and dial 408.805.0495 for a free consultation and quote. Don’t worry – we provide an NDA to protect the ideas of all our clients. Give us a call today for 25% off your first project.

Not sure if you’re ready to make the leap yet? Check out our Case Studies so you can see some of our past successes. When you’re done there, feel free to contact us to get started right away.

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