Apple Looking To Enter The Emerging Market Of Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is a growing segment. Many developers and manufacturers have started taking interest in this emerging market and the smartphone giant Apple has also found interest in it.

Recent leaks suggest that Apple has deployed hundreds of employees to work on a new VR headset which I would rather call glasses to be honest if one patent is observed carefully. However, in either case Apple seems to be working on a gadget of its own which is aimed for this market and the augmented reality ones. This leak is supported by the claim that Apple recently conducted the acquisition of Flyby Media, Metaio, Prime Sense and so on. Apple also hired high profile figures which previously worked at Microsoft on these very Divisions.

Tim Cook also believes that VR is a "cool" market, no more nods needed I guess?

Apple is looking to enter in 2 markets:

Google Glass Competitor

Like I said above, if you explore the patent images which Apple won from Google, it gives a clear indication that Apple will be looking to strike at the glasses segment. Google Glass was pretty popular hit however it never got past the testing and beta invites stage, Apple will be looking to exploit this area with a device of its own.

Google Glass was an interesting gadget despite the fact that it had privacy issues. One could answer phone calls, get directions and what not right from his own glasses. This project had potential, I think Google hasn't permanently abandoned it though, perhaps they or any other manufacturer may revive it on a later date with better features overall.

Gaming Market

You got a vast PC Gaming market, Oculus, SteamVR, Gear VR and the lot launched very recently so the market is still open. My personal thoughts on VR is that it is currently at the end of its First Generation and more or less likely, Apple will be looking to launch its own device by the start of the second generation. Perhaps an all in one gadget which covers both PC Gaming and Mobile Gaming sides.

PC Gaming although is difficult I might add because most game publishers are on Windows at the time being so Apple will have to work a lot to attract them to develop for their VR headset. Or perhaps they could port it for Windows perhaps? But that doesn't seem like an "Applistic" move to me.

Mobile Gaming, the headset to be programmed to work on all apps that are currently in the App Store. By attracting more developers to make games and app for this area, they could expand their portfolio of apps across the Apple TV which also has the same store as iPhones and the latter lot.

Those are some small predictions from my side, what are your thoughts on this matter? Do you think Apple can be a game changer in the virtual reality market?