TCL Alcatel VR headset

Total shipments: 91.3

Market share: 4.0%

Cost for headset: Free with purchase of an Alcatel Idol 4 or 4S smartphone.

Additional equipment needed: An Alcatel smartphone, which is a good value at about $400.

Top content: Cardboard-compatible Android apps

According to IDC, the Alcatel VR headset runs Google Cardboard apps and content distributed by Littlstar, a third-party VR video company.

Business Insider's Jeff Dunn wrote about the headset last year:

The VR is very basic. An Oculus Rift, this is not. Scratch that: A Gear VR, this is not. Alcatel’s included headset is comfy and competently put together — even if it’s ripping off the Gear VR’s design — but it’s basically a nicer-feeling version of Google Cardboard.

Good VR requires good software, and there’s little in Cardboard’s catalogue that has any meat. The same goes for the handful of VR video and photo apps Alcatel pre-loads onto the device. 360° videos are a neat trick, but nothing here does much with the format beyond that. That the phone has occasional issues with smoothly tracking motion doesn’t help.