The VR Market...Is It Real?

I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions about the emerging VR (virtual reality) market lately, I have certain reservations about it, I thought of sharing them with the community.

Is it really comfortable?
As an user experience designer, I found the core VR experience very interesting but also somewhat uncomfortable. And that’s the core principal of home entertainment, it’s all built around comfort & convenience.

The reason TV became the dominant medium of 20th century was because it was “comfortable”, sit on the couch, grab the remote control and get entertained.
Same thing now with the iPad & Netflix revolution, the reason the iPad is replacing the TV is because at the end of the day, it’s more comfortable & convenient than the TV. Sit anywhere, at the any time & watch what you want.

Is VR comfortable & convenient enough for the end consumer, that’s what I believe to be the core question we should ask our-self to evaluate it’s true value in the end consumer market?

Market of fear?
I think a lot of big game studios were "traumatized" by the fact they missed out on the very lucrative mobile game market when the smart phone platform emerged. They don’t want to repeat the same pattern of failure with VR by over-investing without really letting the tech be tested on the market.

Is it fear that’s driving the VR market, the classic tech industry fear of missing the next “big” thing? Or is it really innovation?

Companies will have to ask themselves those questions before investing, you should never be in a reactive mode when it comes to technology, you have to know your history & patterns of emergence? Is it possible that VR will have the same pattern of consumer adoption than VHS or the iPhone?

Is it still just a toy?
At the moment, VR seems to be a huge developer toy. Who’s having fun with VR tech, end consumers or developers? Is it possible it's a self-reflecting market, "bubbling up" while looking itself in the mirror, instead at the end-consumers?