I've often made the comparison between the smartphone industry and the VR industry, likening the current crop of VR solutions (Oculus, Vive, etc.) to the first Treos and Pocket PCs. Those devices were the some of the first phones that qualified as legitimate smartphones and could perform the tasks associated with smartphones (email, web, calendar, media playback, 3rd party apps, navigation, etc) in a manner that was acceptable to early adopters and enthusiasts.

It took a while before the work done in that space could lead to more modern hardware iterations that brought the same features in a more ergonomic and streamlined device (like the iPhone and its contemporaries). If VR is going to take off, I can imagine a similar scenario.

These first devices will be the first real, functioning examples of consumer VR tech that doesn't totally suck, but they'll still be a bit bulky, often require a more powerful computing device to do the heavy lifting, and won't really be appealing outside of the enthusiast and early adopter space. It'll take some time before the displays and HMDs are smaller, lighter, and don't require as much in the way of offboard processing power. Once the hardware catches up, we'll be more likely to see more mainstream telepresence, communication, and entertainment users getting into the space whereas now it seems to be focused on tinkerers, developers, and gamers.