7 Top Virtual Reality Trends & Predictions for 2020 According to Experts

Virtual reality (VR) has gone beyond its gaming and entertainment roots. The most current virtual reality trends show the technology being applied across various industries, including healthcare, education, entertainment, tourism, and business institutions. But more importantly, key players in the industry, especially in the marketing sector, are still exploring ways to tap into the immense potential of VR technology.

VR technology helps businesses improve their operations. Field employees get to virtually experience lifelike scenarios to accomplish tasks. Consumers, meanwhile, experience entertainment on another level and get to have more accurate material for product reviews. Surely, you can’t afford not to know what’s happening in this field if you’re into business one way or another. In this article, we present the latest virtual reality industry trends emerging in today’s highly technological age.

Some parts of the world are gradually embracing the business opportunities that VR technology presents. However, several hurdles are hindering smooth VR technology adoption. Because of ongoing concerns on performance issues and technical limitations, user experience comes as the top obstacle for many when thinking about using virtual reality products.

Specific figures in virtual reality market trends show that the technology has not yet reached a mature stage. Factors like costs, accessibility, and safety keep many businesses hesitant to fully commit to VR technology. Nonetheless, they don’t stop how virtual reality latest trends could reshape many industries.

There are about 42.9 million people in the United States using VR in 2019. This represents about 13% of the entire US population. Considering these figures, the future of virtual reality is encouraging for businesses and consumers alike. In the following sections, we’ll take a more detailed look into where this technology currently stands.

1. Training in the retail sector

Some businesses have started applying VR into their training systems. In the retail landscape, for instance, VR technology allows staff to immerse themselves in a virtual environment where they need to manage long queues or shoppers crowding the store. This eliminates the need to disturb daily business operations to train the entire team.

Walmart applied this technique to prepare their employees for Black Friday shoppers. The company has partnered with VR creator Stivr, which also helped train NFL players through VR technology. Walmart subjected its employees to a simulation of real-world scenarios. Employees were then asked to make choices based on what they saw in the scenes created by the computer-generated vision.

The goal of VR in training is to map scenes and prepare employees to deal with situations like the holiday rush or handling unexpected issues prevalent in the retail sector. In a report published by Statista, the total number of VR users in the retail sector will reach 31.5 million by 2025.

A challenge for the retail sector lies in the cost of VR technology. The use of budgeting software platforms can determine if such technology can prove beneficial for businesses. As a strategy, business owners are limiting the number of people who get to use VR headsets, while the rest would watch in a flat-screen monitor.

2. VR-based education

In addition to popular learning management solutions, VR technology is also making rounds in the education sector. According to Koch’s website, the application of VR technology in education produced training score improvements from pre-test to post-test by up to 20%. Through the use of VR technology in the classroom, learning becomes more fun and engaging and helps students have something to look forward to in class. Besides, these virtual reality trends in education let students experience their lessons through their own eyes.

Google Expeditions now allow students to take history lessons with a virtual visit to the Louvre museum, and they can even roam with dinosaurs and experience Mount Everest. Health, aerospace, and technology are also the focus of most VR creators in the education sector, like Discovery Education, the leading producer of VR field trips.

VR is also proving to be extremely useful in military and pilot training. For several years now, young soldiers and pilot training institutions experience training in the form of VR simulations. The technology, along with the best eLearning software tools, helps soldiers prepare for unexpected situations in the field.

3. Native advertising

Further advancements in VR technology will soon allow developers to add branded placements to virtual experiences. This type of native advertising first appeared as in-game advertising. As VR technology becomes more advanced, VR experiences can soon incorporate native advertising that is demographically relevant to individual consumers.

These virtual reality future trends point to marketing and advertising in VR space. As brands partner with content developers, they can come up with sensational VR experiences, with their products as the center of it. The ad-tech startup Immersv, for example, raised about $10.5 million for 360-degree videos, games, and virtual reality ads. Similarly, Google is running VR ad experiments in its Area 120 workshop.

4. Enhancements in VR technology

VR’s early days revolved around 360-pixel videos, resulting in a limited impact on users. These days, however, 5k and 8k stereoscopic videos are empowering VR technology with much-improved quality. The Chinese virtual reality company Pimax is now offering VR headsets capable of 5k and 8k virtual reality experience, with experts predicting that more VR companies will follow.

Another breakthrough in VR technology is its capability for eye tracking. It’s still in its early development, and VR producer Pimax is working on releasing an eye-tracking module for their 8k and 5k headsets. VR headsets with eye-tracking would be able to apply more computational power on where the user is looking at. The technology comes in handy for displaying complex virtual scenes.

5. Cheaper VR models

In terms of sales growth, VR came off slowly but is improving today as cheaper virtual reality products enter the market. According to Superdata’s report, there is a 30% year-over-year increase in the revenues of VR companies. Last 2018, VR revenues reached $3.6 billion. Sony’s Playstation VR is leading the VR market with 700,000 units sold. This figure is the largest number in any category of headsets for sale in the market. Meanwhile, the standalone Oculus Go sold 550,000 units, whereas the PC-tethered Oculus Rift sold 160,000 units.

The cost of VR is the main challenge that consumers face. It can partly be blamed for why VR technology is failing its sky-high user expectations. When Oculus Rift first entered the market in 2017, it was at $599, and buyers still needed to find a compatible PC that could meet its hardware requirements, which cost about $1,200.

Today, however, Oculus and other companies are introducing new models at much lower costs. The lower prices of these VR models are, in turn, sparking consumer interest. An example of this is the Oculus Go. First launched in 2017, it costs $199, allowing users to have a full VR experience. Other models, like Google’s Daydream, are offering a smartphone-based VR experience for just $50.

6. Gaming with VR

The VR software market owes 43% of its value from the gaming sector. It’s no surprise then that the gaming sector remains highly invested in the VR market. VR in gaming provides users the ability to control and modify the game environment. But as the same technology becomes more prominent in other sectors, the gaming sector’s share in the market will decrease in the coming years, according to experts.

You can find the most successful implementations of VR in the gaming sector. New and improved virtual reality gaming trends and content keeps hitting the market as VR-enabled games become more in demand. With VR headsets like Oculus Rift, gamers get to experience 3D creatures in an advanced virtual environment. Thus, the battle for introducing the most sophisticated VR wearables and input devices are also becoming the focus of many VR developers.

The increased demand in VR games is leading to more job postings in the gaming sector as well. From 2017 to 2018, job postings grew by up to 17%. These job openings include positions for game producers, designers, artists, and programmers. Business, sales, and marketing roles are also in demand in the gaming sector.

7. VR in the travel sector

Travel companies are adopting VR technology as part of their marketing strategies. A growing number of companies are reaping the benefits of VR headsets that provide better customer service and experience. The technology gives travel agents, hotels, and similar businesses in the travel sector more opportunities to deliver a lifelike experience of the services that they offer.

Implementing VR could be one of the best customer service tips anywhere. In recent data published by GlobalWebIndex, 40% of Gen Zers want to see more travel applications through VR technology. This shows a promising sign for VR to propel travel marketing campaigns to new heights. As VR offers customers the chance to preview destinations before booking, travel companies experience an uplift in bookings.

Virtual reality in the modern world

The preceding trends strongly indicate that VR will be here for the long-haul. The technology poses a wealth of opportunities that businesses have not even fully explored yet. VR technology is already paving the next path to learning and professional development. The keen interest in VR technology should see more new trends in the future.

Leveraging technology like VR can get you ahead of your competitors, so make sure to always measure the success of your strategies and know where you stand among your rivals. For this, analytics solutions help a lot. You can check out the best sales analytics platforms available in the market today.