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Comment by sdan | Hacker News Reader

Is Cardboard still being used? After the death of Daydream, I'm assuming Google is pretty much entirely out of VR at this point... although I may be completely wrong.

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They do have several software projects: blocks, poly, tilt brush. I also believe they have various VR divisions. Don’t count them out yet- my take is that the Oculus Quest put the nail in the coffin for ‘phone based’ VR (cheap and solid with controllers/and soon hand tracking is just a better product) and most investment going forward will probably be diverted in that direction (whether it be competing hardware products or complementary software)

Has the Quest been a successful product?

Keep in mind the scope of the entire VR market. It has yet to reach critical mass. Anecdotally, I tried a Quest over the weekend and was blown away. The lower FPS was a bit disorienting in some conditions due to strobing, but the resolution and general responsiveness was just incredible.

And once Oculus Link is released, the Rift catalogue will be available for the Quest, and I'm considering upgrading from a Rift now that it seems like a real upgrade. I'd say a product which convinces current adopters to upgrade so soon is a success.

Supposedly yes: https://qz.com/1739575/strong-oculus-quest-sales-boost-faceb...

I bought mine in May and have been using it around 6-8 hours a week for working out (Box VR, Beat Saber). It is really a nice device for that, I’m not sure about gaming however.

Overall market sales are still small but it's a very compelling product. It is absolutely dead simple to use (literally had age 5 to 75 pick it right up). It's very flexible with floor space and boundary size, so if you're in a small apartment it's still usable. Games work well and are optimized for it, solid tracking, etc.

The kicker of course: it's an untethered system (which is great but sacrifices some visual quality). But even if that's an issue to you, shortly Oculus Connect will be available and you can use it as a viewer connected to your gaming PC.

According to last reports it is selling as fast as they can make them.

Quest is the first VR product that actually has the potential for mainstream success. Phone VR is tedious to use and PC VR provides a good experience but is expensive and only a small percentage of adults want a gaming tower PC in their homes in 2019.

The devices themselves are popular with educators. I volunteer in schools and have helped them turn old cell phones and iPod touches into fun learning tools. There is a lot of 360 degree video and content out there that is great for kids, and they're always excited to use it. And every teacher seems to have or know someone who has some old devices in a drawer somewhere that are perfectly suited for it.

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