Though various studies have shown that the adoption and growth of virtual reality (VR) is laregly being driven by the entertainment industry, with videogames and 360-degree video being a significant contributor, other data has shown that other use cases that could also become an influence on future demand. A report by the User Experience Strategies service at Strategy Analytics looks at the demographics of VR users what what drew them to the product.
The report, titled ‘Virtual Reality: Who are VR owners and VR Intenders?’ looks at demographic and consumer information in the USA, Western Europe, China and India and explores what is currently driving demand, and what may influence it in the future.
The report found that the demographics for VR users and those who are intending to become VR users in the surveyed areas showed a similar age range, with VR users in China and India likely to be ages 25-35, ages 25-44 in Western Europe and aged 35-44 in the US. The report also showed that slightly more men than women currently own VR headsets.
The idea of ‘Try before you buy’ VR applications was of more interest to consumers than almost any other use case, with many VR users finding the concept of being able to see what furniture would look like in a home, test drive a car or virtually try on clothing to be appealing. The next most popular use-case was that of immersive videogames and 360-degree films and live events.
Overall, the report found that there was a variety of reasons for consumers to be drawn to VR, with no one ‘killer app’ currently dominating, indicating that variety in the available content might be the key to future growth in VR.
VRFocus will continue to report on new trends in the VR industry.