Oh I agree completely. I've got an Oculus dev unit and mostly use it for tinkering around in Unreal Engine or playing demos. As you say, it's cool enough that many people are willing to deal with the compromises. I guess that's how I've come to the smartphone analogy. My first Treo smartphone was bulky as hell. It cost a lot more than similar "non-smart" phones at the time and it took a bit of effort to do certain things (plugging it into my PC to back certain things up, flashing updates, etc.)
Still, I loved that thing. Being able to have a synced copy of my calendar in my pocket all the time, being able to browse the web and listen to streaming audio, looking up maps, keeping up with email, using IM apps to avoid (at the time) expensive texting plans...that made it all worthwhile.
Still, if you look at the size of the smartphone market and compare it to the popularity of the early Treos and PocketPCs and Blackberrys, it's clear that the groundwork was laid in those early generations but it wasn't until the basics were sorted and hardware caught up (and prices went down) that the modern smartphone became available and you saw mass adoption.
These HMDs are the first viable consumer VR devices that will see notable adoption but I'm really excited to see what's available in 5+ years when early sales help push hardware capabilities up and the scale of manufacturing pushes the prices down.
Still, I loved that thing. Being able to have a synced copy of my calendar in my pocket all the time, being able to browse the web and listen to streaming audio, looking up maps, keeping up with email, using IM apps to avoid (at the time) expensive texting plans...that made it all worthwhile.
Still, if you look at the size of the smartphone market and compare it to the popularity of the early Treos and PocketPCs and Blackberrys, it's clear that the groundwork was laid in those early generations but it wasn't until the basics were sorted and hardware caught up (and prices went down) that the modern smartphone became available and you saw mass adoption.
These HMDs are the first viable consumer VR devices that will see notable adoption but I'm really excited to see what's available in 5+ years when early sales help push hardware capabilities up and the scale of manufacturing pushes the prices down.