
This holiday season the virtual assistant is expected to top the sales of the virtual reality world. In the field of wearables, smart watches are bound to lead to the highest figure when it comes to sales. More than twenty analysts argued that they are hoping that giant tech companies will use holiday sales as a great strategy this holiday season. But they could not estimate what will top the sales.
Piper Jaffray, a brokerage firm, back in May 2015 made an industry report which argued virtual reality represents the mega tech theme. In 2016, the company decided to reduce the estimated sales concerning VR headsets by approximately 65% to about 2.2 million units.
The forecasted sales of Facebook Inc’s $599 Oculus Rift VR headsets, but also the $399 PlayStation VR from Sony Corp were approximated to reach about 300,000 units. Paul Lee of Deloitte UK claimed that this reflects Sony’s supply constraints, but also Oculus’ technological reality and the $799 Vive VR headset powered by HTC Corp for which only six to seven million computers are equipped with the appropriate software to run it.
Lee also argued that if you want to include a VR headset in your Christmas present for four friends or family, you may need to pay about $10,000. Samsung is apparently the company which will benefit more from this season sales. The $100 Gear VR headset powered by Samsung Electronics Co will be able to turn your smartphone into a VR tool. This might bring them the winner’s prize, leading the sales by giving both phones and VR headsets.
Based on the information shared by the Consumer Technology Association, after two years have passed since the launch of the $179.99 Echo VR device powered by the virtual assistant Alexa developed by Amazon Inc, this category is bound to reach to the of virtual reality devices’ sales, possibly surpassing other giant tech competitors.
Andrew Uerwitz, an Oppenheimer analyst, has calculated about ten to twelve million virtual assistants for Google Home and Amazon Echo during the holiday season sales. He stated as well that personal virtual assistants would boost the VR industry this winter.
Mark Beccue, a Tractica analyst, asserted that even if Google has launched its $129 Home VR device in time for this season sales, the $39.99 Echo Dot which comes together with a list of features could surpass Google’s number of sales.
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