VR Content and Commerce
On the subject of virtual reality I recently ran across a new VR experience with “Soldiers’ Stories 3D” at http://convrter.net/soldiers-stories/. I decided to try it out and wanted to pass along my experience.
I’m always interested in trying out VR/AR apps and content using my iPhone 6 and Google Cardboard or other apps but in this case it is pretty confusing. I tried looking in the iOS app store for “Soldiers’ Stories 3D” and could not find anything (but I had to scroll through a boatload of games before giving up there). Then I tried the Vimeo app and found a number of them but had to click each one to figure out which was for Cardboard because the title info would not all fit on the screen. Then I could not see how to buy/rent the content using the Vimeo app. From the ConVRter website I see that I can rent/buy but I am not sure how that relates to doing it (or even if I have to) using the Vimeo app. Trying to use the ConVRter website on my iPhone 6 took a while but eventually I got to it and then through clicks ended up, once again, at the Vimeo website where I was able to buy it. But then it stayed in the website and did not open the Vimeo app.
My point on all of this is that I think that the VR commerce space (the ability to easily find content that works for your device, rent/buy it and then access it) is not yet at the level of ease exhibited by streaming entertainment (Apple TV, iTunes, Netflix, Roku for example). There is a lot of room for innovation in the area of VR that is not just limited to the various technologies themselves but also the commerce portion of easily getting access to it.