A new report from the User Experience Strategies service at Strategy Analytics has revealed some interesting consumer information regarding the virtual reality industry.
“Virtual Reality: Who are VR owners and VR Intenders?” explores the demographic of VR users across different regions and and examines the kinds of experiences consumers would like to utilise virtual reality for.
The study found that more males than females currently own VR headsets. Not only that, but more men than women intend to purchase VR technology in the future. These results were consistent across all the regions surveyed.
In terms of age demographic, China and India have the youngest estimated spread of VR users, aged 25-34. Western Europe had the broadest range with adopters aged 25-44, and the US had the oldest range at 35-44.
The age of “VR intenders” matched these ownership results, except in the US, where those who intend to purchase VR technology at some point in the future primarily fell into the 45+ category.
Usage statistics are a pretty close-run race, but using VR to try out products before purchase came out slightly on top, following by immersive gaming, media and entertainment, and virtual attendance of live events.
Chris Schreiner, Director of Syndicated Research, UXIP and report author commented,
“It is evident that there is no ‘one’ killer use case or demographic that stands out above all others. OEMs must ensure that a range of use cases is available to meet the differing needs of region, age and gender.
Using VR to try out other products before purchasing them is unlikely to motivate consumers to purchase a VR device, it is one that consumers will use once they have VR, regardless of demographic”.
