Although the most popular VR headset in the world, which is celebrating its 2nd anniversary , has been renamed Meta Quest 2, it all started from a name well known to all virtual reality fans – Oculus.
Back in 2012, when virtual reality seemed like a fictional and nebulous term, Palmer Luckey and a handful of enthusiasts founded oculus VR, a company that aimed to make the first commercial glasses for virtual reality.
Interestingly, the oculus rift’s starting price was $800, which seemed extremely expensive at the time. It seemed that this device was intended exclusively for VR enthusiasts, but we will see that this assumption did not come true and oculus Rift changed the world and brought the VR experience to the hands of the masses.
What you may not have known is that Oculus was conceived as an idea on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The original amount of money needed to achieve the goal was $250,000. Palmer and his team were surely stunned to learn that the project had managed to raise nearly 10 times that amount – a staggering $2.4 million. 💸
Soon after, Meta (then Facebook) decided to buy Oculus in March 2014 for $2 billion. Although Oculus Rift CV1 (which officially came out on March 28, 2016) was not yet available to the mass market, Facebook already knew how to recognize the potential that today has grown into a giant that ruthlessly dominates the market.
Features of the king of VR
In addition to its affordable starting price of $399, there are a multitude of reasons that make the Meta Quest 2 VR device the right choice for every beginner, as well as those who want more. The device itself offers:
- Each eye display with a resolution of 1832 x 1920 pixels
- 120Hz screen refresh rate
- Capable Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor reinforced with 6GB RAM
- 128GB (or 256GB) memory to store apps and games
- built-in speakers for 3D sound
- two touch controllers
- Very easy to set up and use without wires (very important!)
Quest 2 has torn apart the previous version in every aspect and offers a unique experience that you won’t forget once you try it out for the first time.
Due to the built-in cameras on the device itself, you can see a direct view of the real world on your screen, which greatly facilitates movement around the space and, let’s face it, is the law. It seems that with the introduction of this feature, we are one step closer to the world where we walk with VR devices over our eyes as in some kind of sci-fi movie. Otto then. 🤔
What’s even more legal is that individual apps and games have direct integration with cameras that track your hands in space, which means you don’t have to hold controllers that you sometimes get used to strangely, but you can move your hands and fingers in real time, and Quest 2 will automatically monitor everything.
After trying out Quest 2 for the first time, I spent 5 minutes just wiggling my fingers because I couldn’t be surprised by the brilliant performance of this functionality.
Alan Vranić
All of this, along with performance, a fantastic display, a plethora of games and apps that are available are the reasons why this is the best, or at least one of the best devices in the VR sphere.
Comparison with previous devices
Although Meta was very secretive about specific figures, it is estimated that about 15 million devices were sold, which increased VR sales by 97% given 2021, and as much as 242% in the first quarter of 2022!
This is a staggering number bearing in mind that the previous Oculus Quest sold only 317,000 devices in the fourth quarter of 2019, while the original Oculus Rift is assumed to be a sales figure of 550,000 devices.
Quest 2 has as many as 50% pixels per eye on the screen more than the original Quest and does not require connection to a computer (after initial setup) to play games due to built-in hardware. The fact that it manages to do all this at a lower selling price gives away a clear reason why the terms “Meta” and “Quest” have become synonymous with the pinnacle of virtual reality. 😎
The Rise of Virtual Reality
In the first quarter of 2022, Meta owned 90% of the VR market with its Quest line of VR devices, while the total value of the virtual reality market was estimated at $21.83 billion. Looks like Meta’s stakes and effort have paid off. Very.
But in addition to absolute market dominance, it is extremely important to note the impact that Oculus and Meta Quest 2 have had on the overall VR, AR and XR area. As VR technology has advanced, it has opened the door to augmented reality (AR) to the point that even our smartphones have AR capabilities.
The rise of Oculus gave other companies the wind at their backs to make their own VR devices. Among the more popular are Valve Index, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive Pro 2, HP Reverb G2 and many others.
Where to next?
Although the explosion of popularity of VR devices is very exciting and certainly brings a lot of fun and connectivity to people, excessive use of VR can cause inconvenient physical consequences such as nausea, dizziness, excessive sweating and loss of balance. Also, users can become isolated which negatively affects their mental health and become addicted to the use of virtual reality.
Any technology that is aimed at changing everyday life will always have advantages and disadvantages, including virtual reality, but it seems that the rise of virtual reality technology has just begun.
Meta is already working on the next “high-end” headset to be called Quest Pro coming out soon, and we’re excited to see which direction it takes the VR industry.
I’ll see you in the metaverse. 🔮
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