VR - Check out Oculus Quest 2 for a cheap wireless standalone consumer device. If it had better resolution I think it could hit the mainstream. Or maybe it's already happening.
The lack of market demand for VR isn't down to a lack of resolution. It's because people don't want to put a box on their head. There's too much friction for that experience. Most people just want to sit on front of a television to be entertained, where they can get up and move around, and divert their attention to their phone or something else. It's for this reason we couldn't even get people to put on 3D glasses.
Almost comical to draw an analogy to 3D glasses imo - VR is a completely different ball game. VR headset purchases are growing at more than 2x year on year, and the "try it once and forget about it" thing seems to be less and less of a thing based on post-Christmas 2020 & 2021 WebXR usage stats that I've seen.
The virtuous cycle is starting now that big AAA devs are taking notice of the platform. More games => more users => more devs => more games.
It's already happening, the issue is the lack of content.
I've been buying headsets compulsively for the last few years only to replay Half Life: Alyx or Boneworks for the 400th time.
I just got Hitman 3 and it's sad. Borderlands was watered down and not a great experience. There are nearly no multiplayer games. Minecraft is pretty fun but Microsoft Minecraft doesn't have mods.
I am waiting with baited breath for Unity and Unreal to treat VR like first class citizens so it's easy for people to make games.
It’s at a stage with undeniable utility and a possibility to become ubiquitous, but the face hardware problem will need to improve. Ain’t nobody wearing that for a virtual meeting, even though right now the visceral advantages of meeting someone in Oculus are so much better than Zoom.
It definitely is already happening. Especially with the PS5/Xbox shortages, lots of kids got the Quest 2 as their Christmas present this past year. A report back in November has it marked at 10 million units sold, which is pretty significant considering the history of VR adoption.