Right Now is a Great Time to Invest in Virtual Reality

HTC Vive Virtual Reality System.
Image: vive.com

Virtual Reality is a business opportunity waiting to happen in so many niche markets.

Currently you can experience a kind of Virtual Reality using just your mobile phone and one of the many affordable phone VR headsets, with the most basic being Google Cardboard.

But the real VR experience is immersive, allowing you to interact with the virtual environment. To do that you need equipment that is much more sophisticated, requires more space, and is more costly than a simple phone based headset.

From what I can gather the best VR system, offering a full immersive experience is the HTC Vive (This post is not sponsored BTW). At around US$799.00 it's one of the most expensive but well within the budget of an aspiring entrepreneur. Note that you'll need a fairly powerful computer to run it, something in the range of a US$2000-$3000 spend. Not totally unreachable for the average entrepreneur.

The costs, equipment and space requirements are, however, something that the average consumer would really have to weigh up the pros and cons. There are cheaper VR systems, some that attach to your PlayStation even, but none that offer what the HTC Vive can.

That's where I see an opportunity. Not just to offer a VR experience to people who can't justify owning their own system but also to offer such an experience to people who would never buy such a system in the first place.

All you need is to rent a space to set up shop and offer people a chance to experience not just VR games but also VR Art Applications, Social Apps and any other kinds of experiences available.

IMAX VR has an experimental VR Arcade in Los Angeles that opened to the public early in 2017. It has seen more than 20,000 unique visitors in around 3 months, and has been bringing in around $15,000 a week by its third month of operation. Exceeding expectations. Not bad for a $7-$10 ticket per person. As a result IMAX is looking to expand its VR Arcade business globally.

IMAX VR's Arcade has multiple 'Pod' spaces for
each VR space.

The IMAX VR Arcade offers a number of experiences suitable for beginners through to hardcore VR converts, ranging from Tilt Brush (Google's VR Painting App) to The John Wick Chronicles (a VR game based upon the John Wick movies).

The thing is, why wait for the big corporations to bring VR to your city. A single system is affordable and could be a viable business in your local area. From my point of view, how many artists are there who wouldn't pay $7-$10 to try out VR painting in tilt brush for a half hour or more? They could also upload their art to the cloud for downloading or sharing on social networks.

Other opportunities could be VR Gaming or the chance to create your own VR Environments in the upcoming Sansar Social VR World creation platform from the makers of Second Life (one of the internet's original virtual worlds).

Virtual Reality is no longer a passing fad. It has enough of a foot hold that multiple companies are investing in improving the hardware required to get the complete experience. At the same time, mobile phone VR headsets are so cheap that people can afford them on a whim, just to see what VR is like.

Personally I own two phone headsets. I bought the second one because it had an audio jack, microphone and was more comfortable to wear. I'm not particularly into the mobile phone experience, though it really is a good glimpse into the potential of VR. I really want to try the full experience and get my hands on some of the art and productivity applications.

In short, I'm a potential customer for anyone willing to set up a VR business.

Comments

Guest Post: MY SOOPER DOOPER NEW CONSERVATORY/ART STUDIO!

Today's guest post is by Artist, Writer, and Mental Health Advocate, Jo B Creative who writes for her blog, Creating My Oddessey.

You should see our (almost) brand new conservatory, half of which is my art studio. 'Lucky me!' I think to myself. Not every creative bod can boast that. It's HUGE! Like a giant greenhouse.

We first moved to our pleasant cul-de-sac house - great for raising kids - when our son, who's on the cusp of thirty-one, was four. One of the main reasons that we wanted it was that, apart from its location on the fringes of a historic market town in rural Hampshire, UK, it had a sizable conservatory looking onto the back garden. It was brown wood framed and had a corrugated transparent roof sloping down from downstairs ceiling height. On the face of it, it doesn't sound that glamourous, but we loved the idea of a conservatory. Luxury! I even liked the red brick walls which it was built against - the original exterior of the house - and the light …

Revive Skateboards, Design a Lifeline Competition - My Pizza Monkeys Entry Submission

About a month ago Revive Skateboards launched their #DesignALifeline competition where entrants had to purchase a specific Lifeline template skateboard deck, draw their design on it, and then post a photo of their finished board to Instagram with the hashtag #designalifeline.

With only 200 template boards being made available, I liked those odds, and bought a deck within an hour of seeing the competition announcement video on the day it was posted. The deck cost me US$40.00 and about that again to have it mailed to Australia. It's the most expensive competition entry I've paid for to date.

The winner gets to have their design released as an official deck as part of Revive's Spring 2020 product release. As well they get three copies of their deck along with a sponsor pack (which typically consists of a number of decks, clothes, wheels etc. from Revive's range). Four runners up will get a sponsor package only.

If you're thinking you might like to enter, unfortunatel…

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for your self. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you.

Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age.

Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen.

Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an ipod, or your daughter can chat to five friends at the same time on he…

getpaidtodraw.com - Your Questions Answered.

Is it a scam? Is the sales message too good to be true? Can you really sit back, relax and get paid thousands of dollars in residual payments?

If you've discovered the site getpaidtodraw.com and have been looking for someone who has bought this product before taking that leap then this review will peel back the glossy sales message and give you the answers. Prior to buying this product I came across much distrust and misinformation about getpaidtodraw.com by people who hadn't purchased it. There was a real need for information so I decided to take the leap and make the purchase specifically so I could write this informed review. Note that I am not, in any way, a getpaidtodraw.com affiliate.

For this review I will be focusing on the getpaidtodraw system which includes; the ebook, instructional videos and database along with access to the systems author Jules Camber (who replies to emails as 'Jamie, President of Champ Entertainment, Inc and Beats365, LLC'). I'll touch …

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured).

At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop, Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self. As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside.

Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme, was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2, because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below.

My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went nowhere on the char…

Creating a Mobile Independent Artist Business - Part 10: Opportunities to make money (Part A)

In my last post I looked at What to Create and Finding Your Market. This post is something of a natural follow on from finding your market as many of these money making opportunities include their own market places that you can research to see what kinds of themes and subjects sell best.

It's worth doing this research to find out if the art you're already creating is a good fit for that market place - which is ideal - or if you may have to consider expanding your interests to cover popular themes in order sell in a particular market.

"You are the Generation that bought more shoes..."

"You are the generation that bought more shoes, you get what you deserve." This quote is a song lyric that I heard on the radio (my apologies to the writer and artist that it belongs too because I don't know who either of you are). It's a great line and I can only assume it refers to the apparent lack of interest today's eighteen to twenty somethings appear to have in more serious and deeper issues.

Not that I'm trying to hold myself up as someone who campaigns strongly for the greater good of human kind or that I spend significant amounts of time raising awareness of important issues. I'm certainly not a poster boy for changing the attitudes of people with too many shoes but lyrics like that do make you think.

It's at this point that I really don't know where to go with this article. Should I focus on the material nature of modern society and its obsession with having more stuff? Or should I mention a few important issues, like Human Rights Abuses,…

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog