Virtual reality, or VR, has long attracted a young, male audience with its immersive video games. But lately, in hopes of expanding the pool of customers, device-makers have been touting new use cases for VR such as work, fitness and entertainment.
When Sam Cole launched his virtual reality exercise app, FitXR, on Meta’s headset store five years ago, its users were the typical gamer: young men around 18. Just a few years later — as the app’s popularity boomed — his average customer became a woman over 35.Women living with men who owned a headset were experimenting with fitness apps and telling their friends about it.
“These were people who were buying a headset to use it as a piece of fitness equipment, rather than a gaming console,” Cole said. The shift in Cole’s customer base is something big tech companies are desperate to emulate as they race to grow the niche virtual and augmented reality-powered app market into one with mainstream appeal.
Virtual reality, or VR, has long attracted a young, male audience with its immersive video games. But lately, in hopes of expanding the pool of customers, device-makers have been touting new use cases for virtual reality such as work, fitness and entertainment.To brand the devices for a broader audience, companies are partnering with corporations outside gaming and buying their own non-gaming app makers, creating a path for developers to make new programs.
“You’re not staring into the screen and kind of projecting yourself into the scene. You’re actually in it, and you are reacting to the world, and the world is reacting to you.”Virtual reality has long attracted young men, gamers who spend hours wielding lightsabers in a “Star Wars”-themed app or trekking through the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in New Orleans.
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