Virtual Reality Is A Bargain When You See How Much Blu-ray, VHS Cost At Launch

Virtual Reality Is A Bargain When You See How Much These Gadgets Cost
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The HTC Vive is without doubt, one of the best virtual reality experiences we've ever tried.

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HTC's Vive virtual reality headset allows the user to actually walk around.

Soon it'll be available to the public for the eye-watering price of £689.

What's important though is that HTC's virtual reality headset isn't the only one. There's Samsung's Gear VR, a £80 headset that when paired with a Samsung smartphone becomes a portable virtual reality headset. Price for the Gear VR and a compatible Samsung phone? Around £700-800.

Unsurprisingly these high costs have not gone down so well with the general public. As technology becomes smaller, cheaper and more advanced the assumption is that a groundbreaking new product should cost less?

So are gadgets like virtual reality really that expensive?

Well we looked at some of the recent technology launches including Blu-ray, VHS and Plasma and worked out how much they would have cost (with inflation adjusted) if they launched today.

Six Everyday Gadgets That Cost A Fortune At Launch
Apple II (1977) - £3,654

(01 of06)
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VHS Player (1977) - £3,602

(02 of06)
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(credit:Henri Leduc via Getty Images)
The Laptop (1982) - £14,407

(03 of06)
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(credit:Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images)
Plasma TV (1997) - £15,955

(04 of06)
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(credit:ROBYN BECK via Getty Images)
Sony PlayStation 3 (2006) - £554

(05 of06)
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(credit:Koji Sasahara/AP)
Blu-ray Player (2007) - £1251

(06 of06)
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(credit:Bloomberg via Getty Images)