Do Online Casinos Need to Start Preparing for the Release of Apple’s Vision Pro?
Apple has finally unveiled its mixed reality headset that encompasses both augmented and virtual reality. Analysts have expected this to be a landmark offering for the VR and AR market for some time, and the new headset could have the same effect that the iPhone had on the smartphone industry.
Online casinos have always adapted to changing technological trends, but the advent of VR could bring about the most drastic deviations ever seen in the industry. Developers and casinos may soon start putting preparations in place for when VR becomes mainstream.
Online Casinos Were Boosted by Smartphone Industry
There’s no doubt that when VR and AR take off, online casinos will look to integrate the technologies as quickly as possible. The same thing happened with the mobile online casino industry, which blew up alongside the rise of smartphones. Now, more people play games from portable devices, and titles like Buffalo Blitz and Wild Buzz are designed with the smartphone player in mind first and foremost.
The same thing could happen with VR and AR over the next decade. If online casinos start to incorporate the new headsets, they could boost their sales. This, in turn, would be beneficial to the expansion of the online casino industry as well.
VR Will Make Online Casinos More Realistic Than Ever
Online casinos have always strived to offer a realistic gambling experience similar to land-based casinos, and VR will take that one step further. Some developers already experimented with VR when it first emerged as a potential ground-breaking concept in 2016. Back then, the technology was expected to boom, but this hasn’t quite come to fruition yet.
Microgaming and NetEnt were the two biggest casino studios involved with VR productions. The former created the much-lauded VR Roulette offering, while the latter came up with a VR slot game set in a fantasy world. It’s expected that when VR spreads around the world, online casinos will become sprawling virtual metaverses.
When Will Apple’s Device Be Everywhere?
There’s no doubt that the upcoming release of the Vision Pro is hugely exciting, but it may take a while for it to flood the market and become a household essential. It seems strange to think this now, but when the iPhone first hit shelves, it wasn’t that popular. There were only 1.39 million devices sold in the first year, compared to 225.30 million last year.
There were various reasons why it was slow to take off. Initially, many people didn’t know what smartphones were or what they were capable of. In addition to that, the price of the first-ever devices was too steep for a vast number of users. As later generations were released, more people flocked to the cheaper older models. The same thing could happen with Apple’s mixed reality headset. It may not be massive now, but in a decade it could be ubiquitous.
Apple’s Vision Pro is likely to be a game-changer for VR and AR, but the transition to these technologies being mainstream will be slow. Still, it’s likely that online casinos will start preparing for this future soon.