Dive Brief:
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Oculus for Business, an enterprise bundle of virtual reality hardware, accessories, support and warranty, launched Thursday, according to a company announcement.
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Early partners of the bundle include Audi, DHL and Cisco Spark VR. The company hopes the business bundle will extend applications of the tech and make VR "indispensable" to daily life.
- Facebook's enterprise portfolio has steadily expanded, and the combination of Oculus Rift, Workplace and Messenger marks a developing stack to challenge Apple, Google and Amazon, ZDNet reports.
Dive Insight:
Oculus Rift has already found business uses in employee training. Walmart announced it would use Facebook's headset to supplement employee management and customer service training, and KFC debuted a rather unconventional approach by using the headset to teach workers how to fry chicken.
Oculus for Business comes on the heel's of Google's successful relaunch of Glass with an enterprise focus. Pilots of Glass included Agco, DHL, Sutter Health and GE, which used the headsets to help mechanics reduce assembly errors during engine construction. Facebook may soon face competition from Amazon, which is reportedly working on its own VR smart glasses integrated with Alexa.
The AR/VR spending is expected to reach $215 billion by 2021, according to IDC, with retailers and education leading the way. Manufacturing, construction and professional services are expected to become major adopters, and enterprise focused bundles like Oculus for Business and Google Glass will be critical for this expansion across industries.
