Virtual reality (VR) has emerged from its infancy into its awkward teenage years—the technology works well, but it’s not perfect. Big VR companies are still grappling with chunky headsets, nausea-inducing graphics, and a dearth of content, and are seeking ways to streamline and refine the technology for the mass consumer market.
But despite the growing pains, we’re on the cusp of the virtual reality revolution. 2014 saw massive growth as the technology took its first real steps into the consumer sphere, with the market value nearly doubling in 2015 to reach $890 million.
2016 will be a benchmark year, as VR joins the ranks of the billion-dollar industry with a projected market value of $3.75 billion.
While the growth rate will level out after 2016, the virtual reality market value will soldier on, eventually hitting $13.05 billion in 2019, with 36.82 million units shipped.
Global virtual reality market by unit shipment (millions of units)
Source: Technavio, 2015
Technavio expected the initial growth to be driven by the gaming market, but stakeholders in entertainment, industry, e-commerce, sport and fitness, travel and tourism, military and aviation, healthcare and education are all racing to develop hardware, software and content to capitalize on VR.
“Technology and entertainment giants are betting billions that virtual reality is much more than a passing fad, one that will revolutionize the way we experience movies, news, sporting events, video games and more,” writes Lorne Manly in a recent New York Times article exploring the direction of virtual reality.
Manly points to the appearance of new, affordable headsets from Samsung, Sony, HTC and Oculus VR (which was recently acquired by Facebook) as the starting point for major competition for the virtual reality space.
On top of these heavy hitters, Technavio has identified 13 other companies expected to have a huge impact on the direction of virtual reality.
Top virtual reality companies
ANTVR
ANTVR is a startup based in Beijing that produces virtual reality and augmented reality wearable devices. Our first product is the ANTVR KIT – the first all-in-one universally compatible gaming and personal movie viewing kit.
Avegant
Avegant is a consumer electronics company developing the next generation of wearable near eye displays. Developed and patented on micromirror display technology, their flagship Glyph platform is currently under development and is slated for release in 2015.
Criffin
Since Criffin launched, they’ve had nine fundamentally different omnidirectional treadmill prototypes under research and/or under development to get to the best possible solution in terms of user experience and affordability. In addition to that, the company has researched camera tracking technologies and developed an IMU-technology-based full body skeletal tracker ideal for simulations and trainings.
Although the company started from VR treadmill development, it has now moved on to many interesting technologies. Criffin is constantly pushing the boundaries and exploring new horizons. Currently, additionally to locomotion and sensor technology the company is also researching in field of ultrasonic, SLAM and neurohaptics.
Durovis Dive (by Shoogee)
The Durovis Dive is the original Virtual Reality smartphone holder for consumers. The device stands for a simple but convincing technical approach to be able to dive into Virtual Reality: You use the processing power and the display of your smartphone instead of implementing electronics into a VR holder. You start the application on your smartphone, insert your mobile, adjust the lenses – and you are done.
EON Reality
EON Reality is the world leader in Virtual and Augmented Reality based knowledge transfer for industry, education, and edutainment.
We believe that knowledge is a Human Right, and it’s our goal to make knowledge available, affordable, and accessible for every human on the planet. To do this, we’re creating the next generation of Virtual and Augmented Reality tools to increase the world’s knowledge transfer capabilities.
Google Cardboard
Google Cardboard brings immersive experiences to everyone in a simple and affordable way. Whether you fold your own or buy a Works with Google Cardboard certified viewer, you’re just one step away from experiencing virtual reality on your smartphone.
ImmersiON-VRelia
ImmersiON-VRelia offers a perfect combination: a large group of highly creative and talented indidivuals, and a team of engineers whose collaboration allows to develop amazing virtual reality products and services for you. We believe that the most valuable asset of a company is their human resources, and for this reason we want to put faces to our team.
Leap Motion
We believe that simple, natural input is key to unlocking the immense power of technology. With Leap Motion, you can interact with digital content in virtual and augmented reality, Mac and PC using your hands just as you would in the real world. Our unique combination of software and hardware tracks the movement of hands and fingers with very low latency, converting in into 3D input.
Razer
Founded in 2005 in San Diego, California by CEO Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff, Razer began in a tiny shared office of gamers, with a mission to create high quality products designed solely to meet the demanding needs of gamers like themselves.
Today, with hundreds of employees in offices all around the world, Razer is known for its relentless pursuit of perfection, innovating to produce a unified platform of connected devices and software. The use of cutting edge technology, together with contributions by top eSports athletes, followed by constant fine-tuning, has resulted in an interactive, competitive, and immersive experience that is designed for gamers, by gamers.
Virtalis
Our mission is to demonstrate that advanced visualisation, simulation and VR offer a valuable return on investment, providing an essential set of tools to improve the competitive position of our clients in the market place.
Virtual Realities
Since 1992, Virtual Realities, LLC. has been the world’s leading distributor of 3D peripheral products, input/output devices, bundled software, and integrated systems to the educational, industrial, entertainment, and military markets. In addition to selling our own product line of head mounted displays and motion tracking systems, we are also the leading reseller of many other display and tracking products. Our primary goal is to provide our customers with integrated turnkey solutions that deal with Professional Virtual Reality applications.
Vrizzmo
Vrizzmo was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Krakow, Poland. It develops VR goggles that turn a smartphone into a wireless VR headset.
The company serves VR market by offering VR goggles that have two in-built buttons with software. These VR goggles can be used to watch 2D and 3D videos, movies, games, panoramic, and spherical visuals. The company’s VR goggles offer the best optics that has dual lens system with less image distortion.
WorldViz
Our virtual reality software and solutions empower professionals to create immersive experiences, solving problems across a wide range of industries. WorldViz offers a full range of products and support, including enterprise grade software, complete VR systems, custom solution design, and application development. In enterprises, our virtual reality solutions are helping people understand complex information while enhancing communication between designers, engineers and management teams. In academia, our technology enables innovation and experimental control in research and discovery.
