Hardware giants bet big on VR and a market that doesn't yet exist

A visitor uses Oculus virtual reality goggles at the exhibition stand of locomotionVR at the world's biggest computer and software fair CeBit in Hanover, Germany, March 14, 2016. REUTERS/NIGEL TREBLIN

LOS ANGELES: Remember that feeling as a child before your birthday – the mixture of excitement and worry that deepest-held wishes might not come true? That's how everyone in the nascent business of virtual reality feels like right now. 

Facebook-owned Oculus is getting ready to ship its first Rift VR headsets to US consumers next week. Mobile-phone maker HTC will follow up with deliveries of the Vive VR headset one week later, and Sony is preparing to launch its PlayStation VR headset as well.