VR Market Ready To Mature, Says Juniper Research

Analytics firm Juniper Research has released their latest research on the growing virtual reality market, finding that 2016 marked the first real transition of VR from fringe-technology to mainstream consumer electronics product.

“Leading the high-end PC-based devices, we see the release of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, while the release of the PlayStation VR in Q4 from Sony brings the first major console-based VR technology to market.”

They also note “significant development in mobile VR, notably with Google’s upcoming launch of the Google Daydream and the continued growth of establishing devices such as Samsung’s Gear VR. With the expectation of major players continuing to enter the market with a long‑term commitment to VR, getting in early to establish mindshare will be vital.”

When it comes to the future of the tech category, “In the short term we expect to see significant uptake in mobile based VR and a corresponding drive in content production. High-end VR technology will expand quickly but in slower numbers relative to mobile VR, largely because of price.”

“However, the overall increasing user uptake and accessibility of VR is expected to help push diversification of the market, particularly into advertising and eCommerce opportunities, as well as the technological advancements from this enabling growth in enterprise markets and applications.”

“As the industry begins to mature we expect vendors to pursue full immersive VR advancements as well as integrating with AR technology,” they say.