"The VR market's potential is almost limitless. We believe there are many opportunities to apply our industry, such as internet of things, scope of its application can be expanded to various areas, including communication, education and training," said Hong Won-pyo, president of Samsung SDS solutions division at CEO meeting held at Samsung Electronics Seocho building on 17th.Samsung executives tried out virtual reality (VR) devices and discussed how to embrace the new technology at a weekly meeting on Wednesday.
Behind Samsung's push for the VR business is Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong's will to make it a new revenue source. "VR has the growth potential to replace the smartphone, so we need to focus not only on making devices but on developing content to preempt the market," Lee reportedly told officials mapping out the company's future strategy.
Samsung is already one of the front-runners. In November, it put to market the Samsung Gear VR headset, at 129,800 won in the domestic market and $99 in foreign markets, and sold hundreds of thousands of the devices worldwide. Samsung's VR experience booth also stole the show at CES 2016 in Las Vegas last month.
The IT giant is focusing on developing content. At the Mobile World Congress that will open in Spain later this month, Samsung will release not only the Galaxy 7 smartphone loaded with VR functions but a 360-degree camera that can produce VR content, developed by Samsung Research America in the Silicon Valley.
Samsung is making related investments quite briskly, too. It invested $6 million in Baobab Studio, known for making VR content, last year-end, and an additional $25 million in WEVR, a U.S. venture firm that operates "Transport," a platform for distributing VR content, where people can produce VR images and share them. Last October, Samsung invested in 8i, a New Zealand company that was developing a technology that enables users to enter VR and feel their movements there.
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