“A total of 620 United States residents took our survey and the results were very interesting. Despite Meta and Mark Zuckerberg’s best efforts, the vast majority of people SlashGear surveyed — a total of 63.06% — did not own a VR headset.”
That’s ~2:1 according to their own statistics. Calling that a “vast majority” is misrepresentation. Presumably they’re doing that so they can have a click bait title for their article. I guess “VR is dead!” headlines are still in vogue for some sites.
That said, I think their survey is probably not large enough to be conclusive, and they don’t mention anything about how the survey was conducted. In particular, I’m suspicious that the percentage of people who own VR headsets is skewed versus the more general population. Their respondents may be the more hardcore of gamers and are more likely than usual to own the latest gear. Which may make the claim of the article title actually true, but it’s not true according to their own data.
Moving on, translating from the article, the breakdown goes like this:
15% Meta Quest 2
7% PlayStation VR
6% Valve Index
6% Vive Pro
2% Vive Cosmos Elite
63% None
People talk about how much more the Quest 2 has sold, but obviously the cheapest VR headset that’s any good is going to sell the most. What I find more interesting is that high end VR headsets like the Valve Index are not nearly as far behind in number of units sold as they should be for being three times the price. The situation looks different when you express it in terms of dollars spent from their sample group for each VR headset (using some back of the envelope math here).
31% Vive Pro
26% Valve Index
19% Meta Quest 2
12% PlayStation VR
11% Vive Cosmos Elite
This sort of comparison is inline with what I’ve seen from other sources as well which generally show that the Index in particular has performed spectacularly against the Quest 2 when you account for the price differences.
I bring this up because it shows a strong trend toward consumers favoring capability over price when it comes to VR gear. Or in other words, there is an unusually strong market for the high end which continues to grow.
I believe that this is why Pimax continues to exist as a company. Pimax couldn’t possibly have competed on price. The fact that Pimax hasn’t gone bankrupt and instead seems to be growing speaks to consumers being hungry for higher end, more capable VR gear than has been on offer from other companies.
Pimax is clearly targeting the high end with its upcoming Reality series. And I think that’s the right choice. I think their intent is to open with maximally capable headsets in that line and then build downward toward cheaper models over time. Keys here are that the 12K and Crystal occupy a space which doesn’t compete with the Quest 2 and Index. The only competition they really have in that space is Varjo, and I think Pimax is well positioned in that showdown.
The Valve Deckard will appear at some point. I suspect Pimax is preparing and waiting to offer their own answer to it around its price point when it finally lands. And that will probably become the bottom end of Pimax’s reality line up.
So to reiterate, I certainly do believe that VR is growing rapidly as an industry. And I also believe that the apparent trajectory that Pimax is going is a good business strategy to harness that growth. There are a lot of external risks and a lot of ways they could bungle it themselves, but if they get it right, Pimax has a real shot at going big.
