2017 can be a year of firsts for compatible hardware with the VR headset, especially HTC’s Vive. With HTC’s open sourced tracking system, anyone can start constructing peripherals and fixtures that can work with the Vive.

Headsets

Launch of a variety of headsets is in the cards from Microsoft’s partners Lenovo, Dell, Asus and others. While Sony has proved itself to be more than a gaming company time and again, it’s PS VR that has the potential to divulge gamers into a whole new fervor. Meanwhile, Facebook’s Oculus will be focusing more on content. There will be Oculus Rift demos to look forward to this year.

2017 will witness more consumer VR. Each of the above big brands had VR in store for the holiday season and some even had a waitlist. Content designers are getting better after a steady flow of reviews and consumers have become more acceptable about wearing the headsets. This has added an aspirational value to VR.

Retail

Retailers are in a constant search to create newer experiences and this requires dedication with no assured results. Footfall has reduced in stores and holidays were won over by online sales. E Commerce is nipping at the store-fare and Amazon Go is the most recent, glaring example, which is raising anxiety levels of the retailers to think of something bigger or at the least, differently.

IKEA, the Swedish powerhouse of world’s largest furniture retailer has started using VR to preview their products. With their ‘virtual home experience’ Ikea has already upped its game, making VR an architect’s staple tool kit. Ikea is also set to release a pilot VR app that will feature a virtual kitchen experience.

Leonardo Da Vinci museum, Florence

Education

Think about how VR can revolutionize the education system at schools and cultural institutions if it can take a class on a tour of Mars; or a walk through an animated video of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting; the current trickle of educational VR could turn into a flood in 2017.

There isn’t much time to when our lifestyles will envelope around VR just as it has around smart phones and laptops.

Gaming

By nature, Virtual Reality palpably comes off as a gaming technology. Take Virtuix Omni for instance, a concave circular treadmill that allows you to physically run through virtual worlds. Imagine the possibilities it can conquer if this element is paired with VR – a never seen or experienced level of emotional and physical engagement. From gaming to architectural galleries of the art world, a wide range of possibilities with VR will take form in 2017.

Automobile

Vroom, an online used car retailer will soon have VR showrooms in a handful of cities in USA. Customers can wear the VR headsets and check out different car models and also take test drives in the ones they are interested.Virtual Reality showrooms are the next destination for the reigning car manufacturing companies like General Motors and Audi.

Hollywood

Recently, Nokia announced a new agreement with The Walt Disney studios to support the curation of VR experiences to complement Disney’s theatrical releases.

2017 is going to see VR entering the world of online shopping to interior decoration. It has moved on from being a mere luxury investment to a productive technology that is changing ways we have been consuming content. VR is now the result of our pragmatic connection with the internet and the perennial library of objects and mediums we use to avail that world.