Augmented and virtual reality hardware is to become a $4 billion market by 2018, an analytics firm has predicted.
According to a report released by CCS Insight, which focuses on global trends in mobile communications and the internet, hardware shipments of VR devices alone will increase from 2.2m in 2015 to 20m in 2018. Interestingly, the increase will tally up with the expected continued increase in smartphones (more than 2.5 billion by 2018), with VR hardware compatible with phones making up 90 percent of the total share -- devices like Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. Shipments of augmented reality devices will increase 16-fold, the report (Augmented and Virtual Reality Device Forecast, 2015-2019) continues, though the numbers pale in comparison to VR, with AR devices expected to go from 300,000 to 4m by 2018. Two years from now, CCS Insight products VR headset sales will reach 12m.
A release points to all the obvious reasons for this expected spike, namely some of the biggest players in the world of technology being involved (Facebook, Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Sony). But for its part it believes we are now at the technology's tipping point. Although gaming will be the obvious boon for companies, CCS Insight points to the myriad applications in VR that will play a substantial role in making up that $4 billion figure. WIRED investigates just this matter in the July issue of the print magazine, exploring how the technology is already disrupting every sector from medicine and architecture, to storytelling and design. This will have been no small part of the analyst's calculations -- how the technology has the capacity to be applied across the board. "We believe it has tremendous potential and it's not just about expensive high-end devices such as the Oculus Rift," said Ben Wood, CCS Insight's chief of research. "For only a few dollars, consumers can dip their toe in the water with an inexpensive cardboard holder for a compatible smartphone. We expect this democratisation of the technology to deliver growth not just in affluent mature markets but also in emerging markets where smartphone penetration is stronger than ever." Here, he is pointing to current forecasts that predict smartphone growth over the next few years will be localised mainly in emerging markets -- one report puts the share of shipments to these countries at 79.5 percent of the total share. For now, though CCS Insight says Europe will remain the largest test bed for the technology. "Despite the reputational damage done to the consumer smart glasses segment by Google Glass, companies have realised augmented reality can be used to increase productivity and cut costs," Wood continued. "Over the next two years we're going to see the technology move out of trials into full-scale deployments. Companies that embrace augmented reality will gain a competitive advantage."
The slated figures are impressive, and if the tumult of AR/VR-related news coming from E3 in Los Angeles this week is anything to go with -- being just one of many sectors the tech is going to impact -- they could likely be realised.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
