People are more fascinated with virtual reality than new cell phones

A lot of tech companies, including Facebook, Sony, and HTC, are building virtual reality devices, but does anybody care?

Here's one positive sign for the market. According to research by PiperJaffray, people are sharing YouTube videos of virtual reality experiences an average 11 times for every 10,000 views. That's nearly twice as frequently as people are sharing videos of new cellphones. But it trails behind videos of cutting-edge cell phone concepts, which are shared 14 times for every 10,000 views.

PiperJaffray believes the fascination will only grow as the products come to market, according to a note this morning. "We expect as more consumer VR experiences are released, VR will surpass futuristic cellphones as the top area of consumer tech fascination." Expect that to happen early 2016, when Facebook's Oculus Rift finally comes out.

PiperJaffray