Consumers are making a huge deal about Samsung's Gear Virtual Reality headset, buying up all of Amazon's and Best Buy's stock in less than a day.
Samsung’s Gear VR headset offers a sneak peek into the future of virtual reality. Despite the projected release of offerings from Facebook’s Oculus VR and HTC over the course of the next year, people excited about virtual reality jumped at the opportunity to snag one of Samsung’s headsets. According to a report from the Tech Times, there is one main reason for the early success in sales: the price.
The headset includes a mount for a user’s smartphone, which will power the virtual reality experience. Gear VR will likely be outdone technically speaking, when the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive launch in the first quarter of 2016, but for those who can’t wait, the Gear VR is a solid option.
The Gear VR headset will likely lack in the graphics department compared to future competitors, but it has one thing going for it that makes it hard to beat: its retail price. The Gear VR headset sold for as low as $99 per unit. Two of Gear VR’s largest outlets, Amazon and Best Buy, had sold out of their first shipment after just one day.
Gear VR headsets are compatible with the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and Galaxy S6 Edge+. It incorporates lenses that magnify the high resolution of Galaxy screens, and controls applications using a touch screen on the right side of the headset.
It incorporates Oculus VR’s technology to display content inches away from the eyeballs in the right format. Analysts believe that the reason behind Gear VR’s initial success stems from people looking to get a taste of what Oculus Rift will be like once it is released early next year.
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