Zuckerberg: Early Oculus Rift sales will be small, just like Palm smartphones

Facebook, the world’s largest social-media platform, thinks virtual reality and augmented reality are the future — but one that’s distant.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company reported the results of its third quarter financials today, and the chief executive shared some thoughts about how virtual reality will develop as a business. In March 2014, Facebook acquired the hot startup Oculus VR for $2 billion, and the companies are working toward the release of the Rift headset in the first quarter of next year. But Zuckerberg doesn’t think 2016 is when Facebook and competitors like HTC and Valve will put billions of people into VR — even if the market will eventually generate as much as $150 billion by 2020, according to analysts.