Latest data from IDC forecasts global shipments of augment reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) products to notch 68.9 million by 2022 – a whopping five-year compound annual growth rate of 52.5%.
Despite last year’s slump, IDC expects the AR/VR sector to rebound in 2018, with total volumes tipped to hit 12.4 million.
The result is a 48.5% year-on-year increase, driven by the emergence of new vendors and products.
This year, Facebook is set to release its Oculus Go, and Lenovo its Mirage Solo with Daydream. Yesterday, HTC opened pre-orders for its new Vive Pro HMD.
IDC highlights the success of Lenovo’s Star Wars: Jedi Challenges (Mirage AR Headset) in Q4Y17, despite the shrinkage of the screenless AR viewer segment.
Lenovo President & COO, Gianfranco Lanci, affirms the company’s development of AR/VR is crucial to its organisation strategy:
“Our goal is to create some of the most compelling technology experiences in the world that benefit people – whether that’s staying productive, immersing in entertainment or connecting with others. We believe AR and VR offer an incredibly immersive, intuitive and personalized way to experience worlds both real and imagined.”
“Our latest innovations including Star Wars: Jedi Challenges and Lenovo Explorer immersive headset for Windows Mixed Reality are a testament to our vision and strategy to democratize AR and VR in consumer and commercial settings”
“In collaboration with Disney, we’re particularly pleased at the success of Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, a fan-favorite AR product that has earned more than 25 awards since its launch last quarter and became one of the hottest Star Wars products over the holidays”.
IDC Senior Research Analyst for Mobile Device Trackers, Jitesh Ubrani, affirms the AR/VR segment has matured, as products become “more accessible to consumers and enterprises alike”:
“There has been a maturation of content and delivery as top-tier content providers enter the AR and VR space”
“Meanwhile, on the hardware side, numerous vendors are experimenting with new financing options and different revenue models to make the headsets, along with the accompanying hardware and software, more accessible to consumers and enterprises alike”.
