Samsung's Virtual Reality Commercial Might Be Kind of Misleading
It would have you think that all you need is a smartphone to fully immerse yourself in virtual reality, but it's likely not so simple.
Just in time for the glutinous consumer-frenzy that is Black Friday, Samsung has released its newest addition to the growing bulwark of virtual reality products, only it’s marketing the device with a shameful level of simplicity.
The commercial for the Galaxy: Gear VR makes the Oculus headset display look like a demented Game Boy. All one needs is a Samsung Note 4 to mount inside the contraption, then a minefield of content rears itself in the form of movies, games, and other borderline-tangible experiences.
And for Samsung, the process is cheap: All it costs is $99.99 to escape the physical world by tinkering with the Gear VR headset.
Samsung ends the commercial with the tagline, “virtual reality just got real,” and the over all anti-tech marketing tone employed throughout bodes familiarly with iPod commercials of the mid-2000s.
There isn’t much to glean into how the technology actually works from this commercial, but the intimate details at hand will be much less attractive to consumers, who are no doubt less inclined to question what the product actually does when staring down its relatively modest price tag.
For those interested in a (slight) glimpse into the inner-workings of Gear VR, Samsung released a demonstration video at the beginning of this year.
