From a pure real estate marketing standpoint, this was an outstanding event; very well organized, with an upscale standard for running open houses (great but not unusual) but also with live music inside the properties, VR demos and initiation for newbies, In n Out and dessert food trucks, valet parking, etc.

The use of Virtual Reality by Real estate marketers was a win win approach; Tech providers got access to consumers and could test their reactions and gather market intelligence while the realtors contributed to building a sophisticated high end brand for their real estate company, stood out of the crowd and attracted more people (like me).

The VR system was from TRANSPORTED VR, a Silicon Beach startup focused on Virtual Reality for the real estate market. Founders Matt and Patrick were showing their app with 2 of the platforms that they support as of now: Samsung GR (mobile based) and Oculus Rift (PC based). I tried the Oculus Rift and had a great experience of virtual navigation through the immersive environment of the virtual house with clickable screen menus available for direct shortcuts as well as house features pop ups when you looked at them. (for example kitchen appliances details). An immersive experience which is far more valuable than flat pictures.

The multi billion $ question is: when, how and by who is the RE/VR market going to be cracked?

In our VR Market Report published recently, we provide guidelines to qualify the future of VR applications out of the obvious gaming market, under “VR for Work” which also includes real estate. There are clearly great opportunities but also quite some challenges there. Among other reflections :

• – The problem VR for real estate is solving
• – Measuring the weight of the “added value” and compare it to the “effort”. How to increase the earlier and to decrease the latter
• – How to cross the chasm from the excitement to regular use
• – Which platforms are more adapted for VR for Work or specifically in Real Estate
• – Market outlook for both “VR for fun” and “VR for Work”

If you are involved in VR as an entrepreneur, as an investor or as an executive make sure you get your copy and feel free to contact us for any question.

Darius Lahoutifard

The post VR in Real Estate appeared first on Sales & Leadership Training.

This article was previously published on Venture Beat.

VR is hot!

But is it permanent?

Those of us who are old enough to have seen the rise of virtual reality in the ‘90s and then the fall and then another rise in mid 2000 and then another fall, know that the present hype about virtual reality may not be sustainable.

That said, we have also seen in the past that for some technologies, after several cycles of hype, the innovation finally does become mainstream. One example is personal organizers (mobile calendar and contacts apps) on a portable device. Palm OS and PDAs rose in 1996 and fell a few years later, and then Pocket PC and Windows CE rose in early 2000 and fell. It wasn’t until the emergence of iPhones and Android smartphones that those applications became sustainable.

So the big question is: Is VR here to stay this time, or is it hype?

To find the answer, my firm has been researching the VR market for the past few months. We evaluated and estimated product sales for over 30 companies and 40 products globally through revenues and units sold/used for each of the vendors. Here are some of our findings:

1. In 2016, hardware makers dominate the VR market. Sony (PSVR) is clearly leading and is taking one third of the whole market. This is thanks to a) the large installed base of about 40-50 million Playstations sold to users who are the perfect target for a VR upgrade and b) the best balance of price/performance for the VR headset around the $300-$400 price point.

2. Sony is followed by Facebook (the Oculus platform) and Google (Day Dream, Card Board, Tilt Brush, etc.); neither company has a VR user base anywhere close to Sony’s, and their products are either at the low end or a bit too expensive. Still, both companies are generating hundreds of millions of dollars already in 2016, thanks to their brand and the quality of their technology.

3. Samsung follows with another mobile headset (Gear VR). And HTC is close behind with its high-end headset, Vive, thanks to its partnership with Valve and the very popular Steam platform.

4. Content providers, mostly game makers, as well as technology providers come next. This has to change in the coming years (and hopefully will change) since that’s where the bigger value resides. But it is normal to see hardware makers emerge first: Hardware vendors had to ship their kits to developers. Now that there are enough headsets out there in users’ hands (or rather on their heads), it’s time to accelerate generation of content (games, mobile apps, desktop applications, etc). The result of this effort will be more VR games and applications in the coming months and years.

5. Towards the bottom of the top 20 list, we also see vendors positioned in the “VR for work” segment, with VR applications in collaboration, education, industry, military and defense, science and medical, and other research fields.

To dig into more data about the VR market, purchase the report from here.

The post Top Virtual Reality Vendors appeared first on Sales & Leadership Training.

You can now grab a VR headset and explore the earth from your own room or office, in a fully immersive mode, and with a real sense of presence.

For fun or for work, checking out a friend’s new house or remotely checking a neighborhood where you may want to rent or buy, exploring the nature or learning about new geographies, we have all been using Google Earth since its introduction back in 2001. Today Google took Earth to the next level: You can now get immersed into exploring mother earth.

From wherever you are, stroll the streets of Paris, soar over Yosemite, or teleport across the globe:  WALK AROUND,  FLY, or  BROWSE… Go anywhere. Google Earth VR puts the whole world within your reach. Take a peek at some of the incredible sights you’ll experience along the way in the preview gallery here.

For now it is available on Valve’s Steam platform, with a HTC/Vive headset.

What? Not a VR fan yet? Well enjoy the regular video here!

And check our Market Report on Virtual Reality :

https://www.01consulting.net/portfolio-item/vr-virtual-reality-market-research-analysis-report-2016/

The post You Liked Google Earth? You’ll Love Earth VR! appeared first on Sales & Leadership Training.

• Music festivals,
• Film events,
• Sports events.

Imagine, for instance, the 360° camera attached to a drone flying right above the players in a soccer match. The ability of looking into different directions at your convenience and being in an immersive mode is a killer. The sense of presence is created with a high quality (hi-res) vision and sound.

That said, the most successful applications, in my opinion, will be those which will not require a VR headset, even though they could provide a feature-rich experience to those with headsets. I would like to see it with a light headset, or with no headset, on my mobile with a rather large screen, simply by orienting the mobile in different directions just like the actual 360 players running on mobiles which YouTube first implemented and others (including Facebook) followed by adopting. I may want to insert the mobile into a light VR headset if I am at home or in the office.

Pixvana’s SPIN is one platform to watch in this field of 360° Video Streaming.

I previously wrote this post on Linkedin.

Check our new report on VR!

The post 360° Video Streaming in high resolution is almost there. appeared first on Sales & Leadership Training.