>Oculus appears to be behind in hardware (room scale)

Room scale works well in Rift. Notably, there was a 15×11 room-scale test by Palmer Luckey himself[1], and comments from several prominent game developers including Fantastic Contraption[12].

>software (fewer real VR games)

If the launch lineup of 30 games[7] doesn't convince you, and you're not interested in Minecraft[9] or the full back catalogue of PSP[10] or Wii[8] games, you can play any existing game in VR either in a large cinema display[6] or with full immersion[5].

>and shipping date.

The Vive is not immune to shipping controversy and severe miscommunication[2]. Issues have included delays, queue drops, miscommunication, and corrupt/fraudulent shipping costs[11].

>I wonder when they will be able to turn a profit

The headset is being sold at cost. Facebook already turns a profit. Talking of Oculus as an isolated single business unit will become less possible as time passes, but it is already projected to reach profitability in 6 years' time.[3] HTC has recently experienced some financial difficulty.[14]

>Vive and Valve have the upper hand

This is far from as clear as you're making it out to be. There's an significant amount of fanboyism and internet-defense-force allegations in various rift and oculus discussion forums, it's important to not get caught up in rumor and allegations.

>What innovations could the Rift make that give it some edge over future versions of the Vive?

Already, reviews uniformly state that the Rift headset has superior comfort[4]; that Oculus has a simpler out-of-the-box experience; that the integrated headphones significantly decrease complexity and cabling; and that Oculus Touch offers more precise control than the Vive wands, with full support for gesture detection[13] via the Half Moon ring. Plus, the inclusion of ATW directly in the SDK significantly increases comfort.

Of course the Rift isn't perfect either, and VR has a long way to go. It will always be desirable to have higher resolution, better framerate, lighter profile and better optics. But we are very lucky to have multiple companies competing in this space with genuinely viable offerings.

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1. http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-touch-room-scale-vr-palm...

2. http://blog.htcvive.com/us/2016/04/vive-shipment-updates/

3. http://www.alphr.com/oculus-rift/1001753/oculus-rift-to-sell...

4. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/04/the-ars-vr-headset-sho... "If there’s one area where the Rift unquestionably bests the Vive, it’s in the design of the physical headset. I was comfortable wearing the Rift for hours at a time without breaks and without any desire to take it off. With the Vive, on the other hand, I found myself needing to take frequent breaks and constantly fiddle with the fit to get comfortable."

5. http://www.vorpx.com/vorpx-16-1-oculus-rift-cv1-support-rele...

6. http://store.steampowered.com/app/382110

7. https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/introducing-30-games-comin...

8. https://dolphinvr.wordpress.com/

9. https://minecraft-vr.com/

10. https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/26990/ppsspp-...

11. https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4diw2t/money_disappea...

12. https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4bt7zj/fantastic_co...

13. http://www.roadtovr.com/hands-on-oculus-touch-is-an-elegant-...

14. http://www.extremetech.com/computing/211972-htc-declared-eff...