VR headset shipments for 2016 show that Google’s Cardboard platform dominated with 69% of volume shipments and installed base according to Strategy Analytics. Samsung Gear had an impressive volume shipment of 17% of the market with Sony PS VR getting 3%. Samsung and Sony’s VR launches last year helped them share more than half of the VR revenues.
The firm estimated that over 30 million VR headsets were shipped last year, split between Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear, Sony PS VR, Stream/HTC, Oculus Rift and Google Daydream.
According to David MacQueen, executive director of strategy analytics’ VR ecosystem research programme, 2016, joining Google Cardboard, new platforms such as Google Daydream, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR and SteamVR (using HTC Vive) were introduced, and he predicts that even more vendors will emerge in 2017.
The report shows that although Google Cardboard accounted for 69% of shipments, its revenue share was only 12%. The Samsung Gear VR platform had the most in terms of revenue share with 35%. Sony, with its PS VR, took second place by revenue.
