Rather, I think the approach taken by Google is the right idea. Announced at I/O 14, Cardboard puts your smartphone in a viewer made out of cardboard that you fold into place. These viewers are purchasable for under $20 and it is even possible to make your own.

But this.

I imagine the proliferation of VR coming in the form of cheap cardboard viewers that are handed out by companies as promotional material. Because these Cardboard devices are universal in design, more adventurous people will be able to download other VR apps onto their phones.

People will be imersed in a wealth of different VR experiences that are just not games. In the case of Cardboard, there is the ability to see the 360 degree panorama photos you have already taken with your phone. This has the added benefit of allowing people to make their own content for VR and allows them to share their photos in an entirely new way that is not gimmicky, but rather immersive and that provides a good usecase for VR.

Cardboard has an app that provides guided tours of famous locations. Imagine the use cases for the education market: having a class set of Cardboard viewers and allowing students to explore a place they are learning as if they are there.

The phone is clearly the key to expose people to the concept of virtual reality for it is something everybody has and only requires the purchase of a cheap viewer. While it comes nothing close to what I imagine the final version of Oculus Rift will be, it is good enough if you want to get consumers in the door and into the world of virtual reality.