Pricing and strategy of expensive desktop dependency now looks like a huge mistake. My guess here is that Apple or Google is going to come up with VR enhanced phones + cardboard like cheap device that has experience pretty close to Rift before the end of the year. If that happens, their VR devices would be under $200 which would be just accessories for the new phones. That would be far more acceptable to most people then dedicated beefy PCs that fewer and fewer people want in their houses. So the end result might be that Apple/Google VR product might become first mass produced and mass accepted which defines platform, apps and APIs while Rift might slide in to niche for hardcore gamers who want that extra ounce of oomph. There is Occulus Gear VR type devices that might be able to compete but here key thing is that they will really need to control end-to-end experience and this has to be the strategy from the start instead of future pivot or backup plan.
Yes, but I think experience can be improved dramatically if industrial design teams gets on the mission and if phones can have targeted improvements. For example, iPhone 7 is rumored to have massive increase in resolution which could be boon for VR. Add on to this a dedicated chip for generating stereo graphics that stays offline except during VR session to save power. Phones can also get two cameras to support AR scenarios as well as 3D photo/video recording. The headset can be equipped with eye gaze and depth sensors with easy way to slide phones in and out.
