Recently, some of the top names in the tech industry including Google, HTC, Facebook's Oculus, Samsung, Sony, and Acer announced an alliance with the mission of standardizing practices in the Virtual Reality space. A note from their press release states:

The goal of the Global Virtual Reality Association is to promote responsible development and adoption of VR globally. The association’s members will develop and share best practices, conduct research, and bring the international VR community together as the technology progresses. The group will also serve as a resource for consumers, policymakers, and industry interested in VR.

While this statement remains vague, it shows signs of standardization in the industry around compatibility across software and hardware. A partnership of this kind is interesting because many of the companies in the alliance could be regarded as competitors, but here they are acting as complementors in the virtual reality network.

Lessons from the Internet of Things Ecosystem

Most of the companies in the association also have a stake in another booming space in tech - Internet of Things or IoT. The IoT network displayed to the right (credits to Bala Iyer and MIS3555 students) reveals that the IoT space is still highly fragmented with many companies in the IoT ecosystem building up their own capabilities. This is due in part to the lack of industry standardization around Internet of Things. This fragmentation has made it difficult for companies and developers to fully connect IoT devices and get all of them on a single platform talking to one another. The result is an increased level of inconvenience and confusion for the consumer. As an example, take smart home products. Instead of the consumer downloading one mobile application to control all of their smart home devices, they often need to download multiple mobile applications that only control one or two smart home devices each.

Benefits from the Global VR Association

Through the creation of this association, it seems like those involved in VR have learned from the mistakes of the IoT sector around lack of standardization. Ultimately, if this association is successful, it will lead to a less fragmented ecosystem for VR which will benefit both developers and the end users of VR. The partnerships that are formed through this association will hopefully lead to a greater level of integration in the VR ecosystem. This will allow developers to more easily build VR related technologies through a more standardized process and allow consumers to seamlessly access VR systems across multiple platforms.

Lingering Integration Challenges

Even though the Global VR Association is a step in the right direction for the VR community, the major companies that are left out of this association will pose some challenges for VR integration. Among the companies that are not currently a part of the Global VR Association are Microsoft and some of the digital giants including Apple and Amazon. While Apple and Amazon have not officially announced whether they will be entering the VR space, it will be important for the Global VR Association to get these companies on board if they do enter the VR sector in order to standardize practices in VR.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/curtissilver/2016/12/08/acer-google-htc-oculus-samsung-sony-get-matching-global-virtual-reality-association-jackets/#460810502bb8

https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/07/google-htc-oculus-samsung-sony-join-forces-to-create-global-vr-association/

https://www.gvra.com/virtual-reality-industry-leaders-come-together-to-create-new-association/