Looking to put a jolt into sales, the makers of higher-end virtual reality platforms have all implemented deep price cuts ahead of the holiday buying season.

While these across-the-board price cuts indicate that consumer interest in VR products has slowed, one analyst called them a typical move to entice people to jump in during this early-adopter phase of the VR market.

But it’s clear that three key VR players — Sony, HTC and Facebook-owned Oculus — are cutting prices to move the sales needle.

Among those moves, Sony said it has reduced the price of two VR product bundles by $50 — a combo with the Play-Station VR headset and camera now sells for $399, while an “all-in” bundle that includes the headset, camera, two motion controllers and a gaming title, PlayStation VR Worlds, is going for $449.

Meanwhile, HTC has chopped the sales price on its VR platform, the Vive, by $200 to $599. That was coupled with a report from Bloomberg that HTC is exploring strategic options that could lead to the sale of its VR business, and that the Taiwan-based company has already held discussions with Google.

Under a temporary summer promotion, Oculus in July cut the price of its Rift VR headset/hand-tracking Touch controller bundle in half to $399, followed by a permanent reduction on the product combo to $499.

All of those players are fighting for share in a small but growing market. With mobile VR headsets factored in, the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR headset kept its lead through Q1 2017, according to SuperData. The Gear VR was followed by the PlayStation VR (Sony has shipped more than 1 million units so far), Google Daydream mobile VR headsets, the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift.

Related: Another 'Promising' Week for Virtual Reality

Mike Bloxham, senior vice president of global entertainment and media at Magid, said the recent wave of price adjustments indicates that the companies are gearing up for the holiday buying season while also looking for ways to accelerate sales amid a period of sluggishness.

He also said that the price cuts should also drive enthusiasm for early adopters, stressing that their behavior doesn’t represent that of the mass market.

Citing recent Magid research, Bloxham said price remains the biggest impediment for consumers considering taking the plunge on VR by a wide margin (64%), compared to a perceived lack of content (34%).

Bloxham remains bullish about VR. “I think it does have huge potential,” he said, noting that product shipments are not the clearest barometer on the level of usage occurring the market.

“VR has the potential to shake things up and create a whole bunch of opportunities,” he added. The expectation, he said, is that VR will not only take hold in media and entertainment, but also in areas such as engineering, health care and education.

Magid and the VR/AR Consortium, a group that includes Turner, Warner Bros. and The VR Society, recently released a study based on a survey of about 2,000 U.S. consumers, showing that about one-third of all U.S. adults have used a VR device.

The study also indicates that the U.S. market of VR owners and “intenders” stands at 44 million.

Seeing is apparently believing, as 50% of those who have tried a VR headset reported “loving” the experience on a PC or console device, while 90% reported “liking” it on a high-end PC or console headset.

Multiscreen software and navigation specialist Accedo has teamed with HTC Vive on a partnership aimed at accelerating the virtual reality market along with a collaboration that will deliver VR sporting events in tandem with the Australian National Basketball League.

Under the deal, they’ll will produce a series of joint seminars and participate in industry speaking engagements, and to collaborate with “key media accounts” that include the aforementioned basketball effort.

RELATED: Accedo, Digiflare Get the Urge to Merge

They said the NBL, which includes eight teams from around the country, attracts more than 750,000 spectators each season, and offers a mix of prime-time games that are televised nationally.

Accedo said it plans to feature its VR solutions next month at the NAB show in Las Vegas.

Thanks in part to the rise of smartphone-powered virtual reality platforms such as Google’s just-announced Daydream View, the installed base of VR headsets will soar from 4 million in 2015 to 81 million in 2020, IHS Technology predicts.

On the higher end of the VR headset spectrum, IHS also expects Sony’s PlayStation VR platform (for PS4 consoles) to outsell the two main PC-connected platforms – the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive – in 2016.  This year, IHS Technology forecasts that PlayStation VR will sell 1.4 million headsets, and generate $134 million in spending on VR entertainment, versus $69 million for PC-based headsets.

However, mobile VR headsets, such as the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR and Daydream View, will nab the biggest share. IHS sees smartphone VR headsets representing 87% of the market’s installed base by the end of 2016.

RELATED: Google Unveils Daydream View VR Headset, Controller

On the mobile side, IHS expects the Gear VR to have the largest installed base of all major branded headsets with 5.4 million this year, but expects the Daydream View to “slowly disrupt Samsung’s dominant market position” and become the most popular headset for VR by 2019.

RELATED: 360 Video: VR’s Path to the Mainstream

IHS also expects consumers to spend $1.6 billion on VR headsets this year, bolstered by more expensive platforms like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Sony PS VR.

“Smartphone VR headsets will represent the largest addressable market for VR content because of cheaper pricing,” Ian Fogg, senior director at IHS Technology, said in a statement. “The smartphone VR base will be a major opportunity for VR content experimentation

“Smartphone VR headsets’ share of the VR installed base will be 87 percent at the end of 2016.”

However, the firm also expects higher-end VR headsets to dominate content monetization, with IHS predicting that consumer spending on VR entertainment will hit $3.3 billion by 2020, up from a mere $310 million in 2016.

RELATED: PlayStation VR Lands on October 13

“There will be a polarization of the VR market between lower volume premium VR headsets, which will have strong paid content conversion rates, and higher-volume cheaper smartphone VR headsets, which will monetise content at a lower rate,” Piers Harding-Rolls, director of games analysis at IHS Technology, noted. “A $3.3 billion VR entertainment market by 2020 will represent less than 1 percent of overall entertainment spending worldwide.”

HTC is heading up a $10 billion V.C. focused on virtual reality that includes the participation of more than two dozen other companies and partners. 

That group, called the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance, notes on its site that it will offer six opportunities for pitches from startups “from Seed to Pre-IPO companies,” with $10 billion in “total deployable capital” being earmarked. The new, larger group follows the earlier formation of HTC’s Vive X VR accelerator program.

And VR is just a piece of the broader initiative, which will be based in Beijing and San Francisco, and led by two HTC execs – Alvin Wang Graylin, who is the VC’s president, and Michael Lewis, its VP.

“We invest in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed reality startups of any size from anywhere around the world,” the site notes. Our network spans the entire globe, so it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are doing something game-changing, we want to help you realize your dream. We are not searching for the next technology revolution because it is already here. We are searching for the next entrepreneur to lead it.”

The VC will consider investing in a range of verticals, including enterprise, healthcare, education, social, events, gaming, and VR movies, as well as technologies spanning VR tools, platforms, infrastructure/hardware, peripherals, and accessories.

VRVCA also announced its founding members: Blue Run Ventures; Colopl VR Fund; China eCapital; CRCM; CRU Capital; DCM; FreesVC; GGV Capital; Harvest Tech Investments; Hejun Capital; HTC Vive;Hyperion Media Group; Immersion Ventures; Infinity Venture Partners; Innovation Works; Keytone Ventures; Legend Capital; Matrix Partners; Qiming Venture Partners; Redpoint Ventures; Sequoia Capital; Unity VC; The VR Fund; WestSummit Capital; WI Harper; YunFeng Capital; Yunqi Partners; and 500 Startups

VRVCA has also set up a submission page, which says the group will review new entries on a rolling basis.

Elsewhere, HTC, the company behind the new high-end HTC Vive VR platform, is separating its virtual reality division into a wholly owned subsidiary called the HTC Vive Tech Corporation.

Global revenues for virtual reality headset products are poised to reach $895 million this year, according to a fresh forecast from Strategy Analytics.

New, premium products from Oculus (Rift), HTC (Vive) and Sony (PlayStation VR) will drive 77% of the value, despite accounting for just 13% of the volume, while lower priced smartphone based devices, such as the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR, will dominate the 12.8 million VR units shipped during the year, the firm said, calling 2016 a “pivotal” year for the emerging platform.  

Strategy Analytics believes that high-end VR headsets that must be tethered to PCs and came consoles (the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and coming PlayStation VR), will be lucky to exceed 1.7 million devices shipped globally this year because of “prohibitively high pricing.”

“At the same time, smartphone toting consumers are being bombarded by low cost and often bundled-in VR viewers like never before,” Strategy Analytics said, adding that they effectively are a “gateway drug” to upsell consumers on higher-end platforms. Of that group, Samsung has been bundling the Gear VR (regularly $99) with its new S7 smartphones.

As volumes go, smartphone-based VR headsets will represent 87% of the category volume in 2016, versus game console-based systems (9%), and PC-based products (4%). Game console-based VR platforms will represent 46% of the revenue share in 2016, versus 31% for PC-based VR, and 23% for smartphone-based systems, the research firm said.

"Consumers will soon be exposed to an incredible diversity of virtual reality options ranging from ultra-low cost to super premium,”  Cliff Raskind, director of Strategy Analytics' Wearable Device Ecosystems service, said in a statement. “While we expect smartphone-based viewers to take the lion's share of VR headset volumes in 2016 at 87% of shipments, PC and Game Console powered headsets will absolutely dominate value share commanding 77% of revenues." 

Get complete coverage of VR trends and technologies.

Sony’s PlayStation VR headset for the PS4 console will start at $399 and hit the market in October 2016, the company announced Tuesday in tandem with this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The PlayStation VR will debut across multiple regions, including Japan and other parts of Asia, North America, and Europe.

Though it has to be paired with a PS4, Sony’s pricing on the PlayStation VR undercuts the introductory pricing for two high-end VR platforms -- the Oculus Rift ($599) and the HTC Vive ($799), which must be tethered to high-performance PCs. Google is reportedly working some new VR products, including a more advanced version of Cardboard that will be made of plastic, but still requiring pairing with a smartphone, as well as a higher-end self-contained VR headset. 

PS VR, which uses an OLED display, will support a resolution of 1920×RGB×1080 (960×RGB×1080 per eye), a field of view of approximately 100 degrees, and 3D audio processing.

Sony said  more than 230 developers and publishers are working on software titles for PS VR, and that software titles in development for the platform currently number more than 160. Examples include Eagle Flight (Ubisoft), EVE: Valkyrie (CCP Games), Headmaster (Frame Interactive), Rez Infinite (Enhance Games), Wayward Sky (Uber Entertainment).

Additionally, The Playroom VR (from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios) will be offered as a free download via the PlayStation Store to all PS VR owners simultaneously with the launch of the system. 

Sony said PS VR will also feature a “Cinematic”  mode that lets users watch a variety of content via a “large virtual screen” while wearing the headset.  Supported content for Cinematic mode includes standard PS4 games and videos as well as some PS4 features, including Share Play and Live from PlayStation. The system will also support 360-degree photos and videos that are captured by devices, including the omnidirectional cameras on the PS VR. 

HTC started to take pre-orders for the Vive today at 10 a.m. ET, introducing a virtual reality platform that will cost $799 and go head-to-head with the Oculus Rift.

HTC, which has also announced international pricing for the Vive (it’ll fetch C$1,149 in Canada, £689.00 in the U.K., and €899.00 across other parts of Europe, for example), said the pre-order package bundles in three VR titles: Fantastic Contraption, Job Simulator and Tilt Brush, a 3D painting system from Google. The Vive kit will also include two wireless controllers and a 360-degree tracking and room scale movement sensors.

HTC, which is limiting orders to one Vive unit per customer, said it expects to start shipping the Steam VR-powered platform on April 5.

Like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive users must tether the platform to a high-octane PC (HTC recommends PCs with an Nvidia GeForce GTC 970/AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or greater GPU, Intel i5-4590/AMD FX 8350 or greater CPU, at least 4 gigabytes of RAM, and HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2 or newer video outputs).

Out of the chute, the HTC Vive will be a bit pricier than the Oculus Rift, which opened preorders on January 6 and starts at $599. Earlier this month, Oculus started to take pre-orders on Oculus-ready PCs and Rift bundles that start at $1,499.

Samsung, meanwhile, is trying to prime the virtual reality pump by bundling the Oculus-powered Gear VR headset with its new Galaxy S7 and S7 edge smartphones. The Gear VR regularly sells for $99, but is compatible only with select Samsung smartphone models.

Google reportedly is working on at least two new VR platforms -- a smartphone-powered viewer that would be a notch above its Cardboard platform, as well as a self-contained VR headset.

In January, the Consumer Technology Association predicted  that interest in new VR products, such as the Oculus Rift, Gear VR and HTC Vive and coming Sony VR headset for the PS4, will cause unit sales to surge 500% in 2016 and reach 1.2 million units sold. CTA also expects VR to generate $540 million in revenues this year, up 440% from 2015.

RELATED:'Virtual Reality -- Ready for a Closeup' Webinar, Feb. 24, with Andrew Trickett (Merge VR) and Tony Mugavero (Littlstar), moderated by Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner

Sony hasn’t announced a 2016 launch date for the PlayStation VR, the virtual reality headset that will pair up with the PS4 console, but GameStop CEO Paul Raines said he’s preparing for a fall debut.

“It’s a big launch. We’re getting ready for it,” Raines said in a TV interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo. “We will launch the Sony product this fall.”

He said GameStop is also in retail distribution talks with Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR specialist, as well as with HTC, maker of the Vive VR platform.

Oculus started taking preorders for the Oculus Rift last month ahead of shipments that will begin this spring, and yesterday started to take preorders for Oculus Rift-PC bundles that start at $1,499. Preorders for the HTC Vive are expected to open on February 29.

Google, maker of the entry-level  Cardboard VR viewer,  is reportedly developing a new VR headset that will rival the Samsung Gear VR and require the user to pair the device with a smartphone, and is said to be working on a more advanced self-contained VR headset.

Raines said it’s hard to measure the VR market right now, but is bullish about it because current forecasts “all start with a ‘B’.” He referenced a Goldman Sachs forecast that sees the VR market eclipsing that of TV by 2025.

You can view the Raines interview below:

MORE FROM THE VR SPECIAL REPORT: Littlstar Builds VR Content Constellation | Investors Bank on Virtual Reality

RELATED:'Virtual Reality -- Ready for a Closeup' Webinar, Feb. 24, with Andrew Trickett (Merge VR) and Tony Mugavero (Littlstar), moderated by Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner

Initiatives from the likes of Facebook and YouTube are giving consumers an easy way to consume 360-degree video with no need for an additional headset.

However, the virtual-reality sector is already percolating with the full range of headsets — from entry-level, practically disposable platforms like Google Cardboard to new high-end platforms such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Here’s a snapshot of some VR headsets and viewers that are the market now, and some additional high-end platforms that will start shipping later this year. EDITOR's NOTE:Download the VR Headsets chart at the end of this article.

While some headsets appear to be going after a certain part of the market, “there’s room for multiple big winners that are that are going after different segments and use cases,” Andrew Trickett, co-founder of Merge Labs, said. “Our target is not so much the hard-core gamer as the … technology enthusiast.”

As for the Merge VR platform, it’s compatible with all of the Cardboard apps, though the company has also released a software |development kit to help partners build in capabilities that take advantage of its other functions, including lens adjustors and integrated buttons.

The company, which began to ship the Merge VR last November via outlets such as Amazon, has also developed Merge Start, a curated “trusted gateway” for VR apps and services. Early on, it features an “app of the day,” but will expand from there, Trickett said.

The VR market is expected to broaden in the year ahead. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Google’s developing a successor to Cardboard that will feature a higher-quality headset and be more tightly integrated with the Android software and apps ecosystem.

Google is expected to announce details at its annual I/O developer’s conference in May.

Apparently happy with the consumer response to its inexpensive Cardboard virtual reality viewer and pursuing the next leg in its VR strategy, Google is reportedly pushing ahead with a next-gen, self-contained VR headset that won’t require users to pair it to a smartphone, game console, or a high-octane PC.

Google, which recently tapped company vet Clay Bavor to head up its VR team, is also preparing to release a more advanced version of its entry-level Cardboard viewer later this year that will be made of plastic, but will still need to be paired to a smartphone, according to The Wall Street Journal. That offering, The Financial Times reported earlier, will be similar to the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR headset, which is compatible with certain Samsung smartphone models (here’s our review of that platform).  

But Google’s purported plans for a self-contained offering would seemingly take aim at high-end VR platforms such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, which will be required to be linked to powerful PCs.  An Oculus Rift bundle is available for preorder starting at $599 and will start shipping in the spring; preorders for the HTC Vive are expected to begin on February 29. Sony, meanwhile, is expected to launch the PlayStation VR, a headset that will work in tandem with the popular PlayStation 4 gaming console, later this year.

Google hasn’t announced plans for what’s coming after Cardboard. Word of those plans could come at its I/O developer’s conference in May.  The WSJ said the timing of the release of Google’s new self-contained VR headset isn’t clear, but that Google could use I/O to unveil its more advanced smartphone-based VR viewer.

Speaking on the company’s earnings call earlier this month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Cardboard “is just the first step,” in its VR strategy, noting that more than 5 million of the inexpensive viewers had been shipped so far.

Virtual reality and 360-degree video have become a growing priority for the pay TV industry, particularly among programmers, so I dipped my toe into the platform to see what all the fuss is about.

My first experience with VR was with Google Cardboard, a very inexpensive way to get a taste of the technology and some of the content that’s being developed. There are plenty of Cardboard apps available, and I found the whole apparatus easy and accessible, though the experience had that poor-man’s VR feel to it.

More recently, I’ve been kicking the tires on the Merge VR, a sturdier, foam-based and higher-end display that supports all of the Cardboard apps and some other features and functions — such as easily accessible control buttons — that aren’t present in Google’s entry-level set-up. It’s a nice step up, and certainly a big step up from Cardboard.

But late last year, I was gifted a Samsung Gear VR, the Oculus-powered mobile headset that works with select smartphones, including mine, the Galaxy S6 edge plus.

The Gear VR presents a far more immersive, tightly integrated experience, offering a 3D world and a small but growing walled garden of content, including games and an array of short videos and VR experiences from partners such as Discovery Channel and Syfy. The platform’s accurate head-tracking navigation is another plus.

However, the quality of the content is hit and miss. A zip through a desert in a Star Wars setting was a fuzzy, pixelated mess, but Titans of Space, a downloadable journey through the solar system and beyond, was a sharp and interesting visual delight. VR productions/clips of recent boxing matches from Showtime and Fox Sports gave me a ringside view of the fight game that I’ve never had before.

I also enjoyed GrooVR, a funky, thematic VR experience driven by the beats and tones of one’s own music; it went as far as allowing me to link the app to my Spotify account. A puzzle/adventure game called Land’s End was another visual pleasure.

But I also couldn’t tolerate staying in these environments for more than 30 minutes at a sitting, which fits in well with why the current video focus for VR is on shorter-form fare. I did enjoy experimenting with the Netflix VR app for Gear VR, but I’d be hard-pressed to watch an hour-long TV episode on it, let alone a two-hour movie.

User tolerance, though, is just part of what would prevent me from staying in the experience for much longer than 30 minutes. A big problem is that the smartphone that connects to and powers the Gear VR headset becomes a hot potato in 20 minutes or less. More than once, I saw this message: “Your Gear VR needs to cool down to maintain optimal performance.” 

Soon after that message appeared, the video from any game I was playing would stutter, sputter and flicker, and I’d have to set everything aside so it could cool down.

For what it does well and not so well, Gear VR could serve as a gateway to even higher-end platforms. I’m not ready to make the investment required for the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive (the Oculus Rift, for instance, starts at $599, but I’d also have to spring for a high-octane PC), but I will certainly be in the market for the PlayStation VR because it will work with a device I already own — the PlayStation 4.

Editor’s note:  For much more on the emerging market for virtual reality and 360 video, check out our special section on those topics in the February 15 edition of Multichannel News.  In addition to features on how programmers and studios are experimenting with this new medium and how VC dollars are pouring into the sector, we’ll also have a Q&A with Littlstar founder and CEO Tony Mugavero.