Most VR companies have stayed relatively tight-lipped about sales figures. We don’t have a clear idea on precisely how many units have been sold for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, Daydream View, or any other major headset on the market. However, uncovering sales figures for comparable and similar platforms, such as Homido’s line of mobile headsets, is a move in the right direction. According to a Homido representative, the company has collectively sold approximately 557,000 HMDs since 2014.
Homido isn’t a household name around the world like Facebook, Google, Sony, or Samsung, but it has carved out a niche in the mobile HMD market over the past two years. Millions of people were introduced to VR in 2016 whether it be through TV commercials, hands-on demos, or one of the countless cheap viewers that are found in bargain bins and checkout lines at various big box retailers around the world. I’ve even seen kiosks at shopping malls peddling discount mobile HMDs recently.
Starting all the way back in 2014, Homido first released its V1 model headset, which has since been discontinued for sale on their official site as they’ve transitioned to the V2 iteration. It is however still available from some third party retailers. Since then, the company has released several other headset styles and a company representative provided us with the following sales figures to date for all of its mobile HMDs:
- Homido V1 (standard mobile HMD, first released in 2014) has sold 120,000 units total
- Homido mini (pocket-sized solution, first released in 2015) has sold 244,000 units total
- Homido Grab (targeted at children, first released in September 2016) has sold 63,000 units total
- Homido V2 (company’s new flagship device, first released August 2016) has delivered 70,000 to market with approximately 60,000 on backorder
All in all that adds up to approximately 557,000 total mobile HMDs sold to date. The company also sells Homido-branded bluetooth gamepads, which can be used for a variety of experiences, and is prototyping its own motion controllers. It’s worth noting that even though these HMDs feature similar designs and form factors to the Samsung Gear VR and Daydream View, these headsets aren’t actually compatible with the Gear VR, Oculus Home, or Daydream ecosystems. Practically speaking, these are more or less slightly suped up Cardboard viewers, as they can only access VR experiences that are widely available on the Google Play Store or iOS App store for most recent Android and iOS devices.
Regardless, this does paint an interesting picture. Recent market predictions from SuperData stated that the Samsung Gear VR was expected to move approximately 2.3 million headsets in 2016 compared to 450,000 Google Daydream Views. It remains to be seen whether these figures are accurate, but since Oculus stated Gear VR had over 1 million users earlier this year and it cracked a major category on Amazon this holiday season, it’s entirely possible.
Do these types of sales figures surprise you? Have you tried a Homido headset? Let us know in the comments below!
