This week at its annual developer conference, Google announced a standalone VR headset through a partnership with HTC. The standalone VR HMD will run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 mobile processor and is set to be released by the end of 2017.

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Standalone: The Future of Content Consumption

Standalone headsets are important to the future of the industry as consumers and commercial users call for an untethered headset. In the 2017 Virtual Reality Industry Report, Greenlight Insights provides insights from 1,000+ industry executives about their future outlook. A majority of survey respondents believe smartphone and PC-tethered headsets will drive the most consumption of VR content near term, but standalone VR headsets will grow share by 2021.

70.2% of all respondents believe that Smartphone-based VR headsets, such as Samsung Gear and Google Daydream will drive most of the VR consumption in the next 12 months. However, looking further out, 43.2% of respondents believe that Smartphone-based VR headsets will drive most of the VR consumption. Interestingly, 35% believe standalone headsets will be the dominant consumption vehicle.

Everything You Need To Know In One Report

Since June 2015, Greenlight Insights has published the annual Virtual Reality Industry Report with the editorial contributions of the industry’s leading analysts and authorities.

This year, the Industry Report is co-written with RoadToVR, the world’s largest independent news publication dedicated to the consumer virtual reality industry, as well as contributions from iResearch (China) and MoguraVR (Japan).

Available now, the 2017 Virtual Reality Industry Report includes Greenlight Insights' 5-year global hardware and software forecasts the foreseeable effects following the introduction of new headsets.