Greg Sterling says, “The question hanging over Virtual Reality (VR) is whether it will truly become “the next great technology platform that’s going to define the way we all connect in the future,” as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has predicted. One can liken Facebook’s roughly $2 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014 to Google’s $1.65 billion YouTube purchase in 2006.

Some financial analysts have estimated that YouTube would be worth $70 billion if it were a stand-alone company. It was discussed at the time as a “social media” acquisition, but it was really about luring brand advertising dollars to Google, which it has.

But as big an impact as YouTube has had on the market and on Google, VR could have a significantly larger impact. “Could” is the operative word, which is why Google is hedging with Cardboard, a lower-rent version of Oculus that mostly outsources development to third parties“.

Virtual Reality: Google Cardboard vs. Facebook’s Oculus Like Android vs. iOS

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