Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC recently released its new flagship phone, the HTC 10. However, despite the high-end specs and features of the HTC 10, some market analysts predict that it will have a hard time competing in the toxic market of Android smartphones. This reason led some analysts to predict that the success of virtual reality headset HTC Vive will be crucial to the future of the company.
The early figures statistical figures are promising as HTC sold 15,000 units of the Hive in just 10 minutes after it opened the pre-order phase, according to Tech Crunch. This is a big success for the company whose smartphone division is still struggling to keep up with some of the world's biggest manufacturers like Samsung and Apple.
The important thing here is that the virtual reality platform is still in its infancy, which means that there are still a lot to develop. This year's forecast estimates that all virtual reality manufacturers should be able to ship around 16 million units of virtual reality machines, combined.
Market analysts agree that considering HTC's constant revenue decline over the past few years, the Taiwanese company might opt in for a faster route towards success rather than wait for the virtual reality platform the become a huge industry, according to Forbes.
Tech express said that HTC should start to integrate its smartphone products into the HTC Vive virtual reality headset in order to capitalize for the future in case the headset will be a success. This strategy will create a sort of brand loyalty, just like what is happening with devoted Apple consumers.
It is still early to predict which virtual reality headset will dominate the platform. However, tech experts believe that the platform is surely the next big thing, not only in terms of gaming but also in other applications like science, research, medicine and even military.
Another factor market analysts predict will play a major role in the success of any virtual reality machines is content. Any virtual reality machine needs a healthy library of content in order to be crowned the ultimate winner of the platform.
So far, only a handful of virtual reality devices pose a serious threat to the HTC Vive. These are the Oculus Rift and the not yet released PlayStation VR.