An Enterprise VR Resurgence

VR has been pronounced dead and brought back to life more times than Nick Fury.

Facebook announced that it’s stopping production of the Oculus Rift S, a VR headset focused mainly on the consumer gaming market. Facebook has other VR tech it’s working on, like the Oculus Quest series, but the announcement has tech writers both pronouncing the death of VR and claiming it’s about to explode. 

While the future of consumer-centric VR is fuzzy, there’s one area where VR is seeing unquestionable growth: the enterprise market. 

Enterprises have been willing to invest in VR headsets and content development, especially since COVID caused in-person restrictions. 

Energy, manufacturing, and other enterprises are using VR for training, field service, operations monitoring, and more. In doing so, they’re able to work around COVID restrictions, improve safety, and recoup their investments.

From Marvel

Enterprises can put employees through health and safety training, in a virtual environment, without exposing them to the hazardous conditions they’re training for. 

Healthcare organizations have been able to train providers in COVID safety protocols without using valuable PPE or exposing employees to the dangerous virus. 

Tecknotrove, one of Asia's leading VR training and simulation companies, provides immersive training experiences for dangerous mining operations. It has worked with some of the largest mining companies and OEMs in the world, including Debswana Mines, Rio Tinto,  Sesa Goa, Komatsu, Caterpillar, and Volvo.

BP recently tapped Survivex, part of the 3T Energy Group, to develop and deliver a four-week training program that uses virtual reality, augmented reality, and mobile apps to train BP operational personnel in safety-critical operating procedures. 

Consumers may not be all-in on VR just yet, but enterprises are moving that direction.

As James Watson, founder of XRTech Marketing, put it, “So, to all those out there who are keen to proclaim the ‘death of VR,’ I would advise you to take a broader look across both consumer and enterprise. Indeed, as headsets become cheaper, more content is available, and the benefits of 5G kick-in, we may even have to consider using ‘VR is alive and well’ for both consumer and enterprise.”

Like a cat, it seems, VR has many lives.