VR & AR Headset Market Expected to Grow 58% Annually, Reaching 99.4 Million Units

Zarathustra[H]

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Businesswire is reporting on an IDG market report, suggesting that the virtual reality and augmented reality headset market will grow an average of 58% year over year reaching 99.4 million units by 2021.

2021 may sound like "the future" portrayed in some dark, post-apocalyptic sci-fi game (hello Deus Ex) but it's only 4 years off. I feel fairly certain I will be contributing to this 58% year over year growth with my own wallet in that time span.

"2016 marked an important step for the AR and VR headset market with product finally arriving in end users' hands and on their heads," noted Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's Augmented and Virtual Reality team. "While there was clear demand coming primarily from technology enthusiasts, what became readily apparent were the use cases for enterprise users across multiple verticals and for consumers with gaming and content consumption. This sets the stage for the multiple aspects of the market that device makers, platforms and content providers, and developers will be addressing in the months and years to come."
 
I doubt they will hit those sales numbers.

VR is the next 3D TV, over hyped and not something most people will ever bother with.
Too many people have problems with motion sickness or just don't want to wear this stuff on their head.
 
I doubt they will hit those sales numbers.

VR is the next 3D TV, over hyped and not something most people will ever bother with.
Too many people have problems with motion sickness or just don't want to wear this stuff on their head.

I used to feel the same way you did, but then I experienced it. This is way more than 3DTV.

We'll see. I think it is a transformative enough experience that people will put up with the downsides of having to wear a headset. Motion sickness seems more of a matter of poor implementation and insufficient hardware to run it without lag, reprojection and dropped frames. I just feel it needs to come down in cost, come up in resolution, and there needs to be faster, cheaper GPU's able to power through the requirements, and I think it will catch on in a huge way.

I think one impediment is that not everyone has the space in their home for a room scale setup. It would certainly be difficult for me, but I think more flexibility regarding seated operation and roomscale can help address this.

We are in early times, but I don't think it is going away this time. The tech is here to make it work.
 
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That's a really optimistic outlook. I'd be interested in seeing the monthly sales trend for calendar year 2016 to see if that forecast is even realistic. In my opinion I think that the majority of people who were interested in VR already purchased one or multiple first generation headsets. I still think that having to wear a headset is a point of hesitation from most people in addition to the cost. I like what I've tried of VR so far, but I can only stand using the headset so much and for so long before I become fatigued from dealing with the physical and space issues. Condensation and all the wires being the two that have the most impact. As a result I may only break it out once a week.
 
I doubt they will hit those sales numbers.

VR is the next 3D TV, over hyped and not something most people will ever bother with.
Too many people have problems with motion sickness or just don't want to wear this stuff on their head.

I still have 3D Vision running on my sig rig but hardly use it for games anymore though I do use it to watch 3D BDs quite a bit. From my personal use of both technologies 3D TV/monitors are NOTHING EVEN CLOSE to positional tracking VR. Immersive is an overused word in the VR world but that's what it is, at least with the right content. There's a long way to go with VR and its adoption might be slow but it's no fad.
 
I also hope these people realize that there are many more millions ready to spend the cash if they can get some killer VR games / apps on the market, get the performance up and the cost down.

This is the one thing I am waiting on the most of all
 
99.4 million is ridiculous. I just farted a much better number: 105.237 million. Now that's more like it. Smells nice, too.
 
untill the headset gets under 300$ mark, this 99mil units will never happen, and you still need AAA killer apps, most devs are too cheap to gamble, and thanks to HTC and oculus idiotic short sighted strategy, the whole tech is stuck in demo cycle.
 
Translation: "I've never tried VR and have no clue what I'm talking about"

I've tried it and decided I have no interest in it, just like 3D TV's. Have other/better things I'd rather spend my money on.

At the last family Christmas, one member was showing off his new VR headset.
Almost everyone tried it, but over half had motion related issues after taking it off.
Now, this was mostly adults who don't do much in the way of gaming, but that also describes a large portion of the population.

It was only a couple of the teens who liked it enough to want one for themselves.

For everyone else it ranged from "don't want to do that again" to "interesting, but I wouldn't spend money on one"
 
I've tried it and decided I have no interest in it, just like 3D TV's. Have other/better things I'd rather spend my money on.

At the last family Christmas, one member was showing off his new VR headset.
Almost everyone tried it, but over half had motion related issues after taking it off.
Now, this was mostly adults who don't do much in the way of gaming, but that also describes a large portion of the population.

It was only a couple of the teens who liked it enough to want one for themselves.

For everyone else it ranged from "don't want to do that again" to "interesting, but I wouldn't spend money on one"

If you don't mind me asking, what VR setup did you try?
 
I've tried it and decided I have no interest in it, just like 3D TV's. Have other/better things I'd rather spend my money on.

At the last family Christmas, one member was showing off his new VR headset.
Almost everyone tried it, but over half had motion related issues after taking it off.
Now, this was mostly adults who don't do much in the way of gaming, but that also describes a large portion of the population.

It was only a couple of the teens who liked it enough to want one for themselves.

For everyone else it ranged from "don't want to do that again" to "interesting, but I wouldn't spend money on one"

System performance has a lot to do with motion related issues in VR. And the content. Some people will have issues not matter what and it can take a little getting used to even if you're not prone, like content that has conveyer motion. In any case, it's nothing like 3D TV at all. I've used VR for gaming in just three months far more than I ever used 3D Vision for gaming for over 6 years. VR/AR has enough of a following and developer interest to sustain and improve it for years to come. Unlike 3D.
 
I Tried a Friends Vive. It was a lot of fun but I wasn't impressed with the resolution. I plan on waiting a couple of generations for refinements to be made and better resolution in the display. I think it is definitely the way things will be moving in the next 3-5 years.
 
If you don't mind me asking, what VR setup did you try?


Don't remember as there was so much else going on over the holiday.

However, I have to admit I even have some problems with the games on my PC nowdays.
No problems when I played 15-20 years ago, but don't have the time or the stamina to stare at the screen for hours any more. Sometimes I really hate this getting old stuff.
 
Do naysayers ever remember their words and sentiments years later when they look incredibly ignorant in retrospect?
I'm sure some do, but the majority probably don't, which explains why they have such thoughts in the first place.

Subjects like this require a few understandings in place before someone should speak with any authority.
I want to say "millennials" but we are an older forum.

The 3D tv comparison had been my threshold of ignorance on this forum for of couple years now, hopefully we'll start to see it less present moving forward.
 
Just wanna say 3dtv on large high end sets is amazing since everyone is trashing it...
 
Translation: "I've never tried VR and have no clue what I'm talking about"

Haaaa!, you gave me a good chuckle with that sir!

Don't remember as there was so much else going on over the holiday.

However, I have to admit I even have some problems with the games on my PC nowdays.
No problems when I played 15-20 years ago, but don't have the time or the stamina to stare at the screen for hours any more. Sometimes I really hate this getting old stuff.

Then you have no reason to spout that BS in the first place, bugger off and go take a dump somewhere else.

This shit has always been my Holy Grail of gaming, heck this will go way beyond gaming, so many applications. I can't wait to buy one, but I am quite the graphics whore and the pixels are just too big for the first gen systems, I can wait for higher resolution, I've waited this damn long.
 
I doubt they will hit those sales numbers.

VR is the next 3D TV, over hyped and not something most people will ever bother with.
Too many people have problems with motion sickness or just don't want to wear this stuff on their head.

Untill there's a killer app it'll be out there on the fringes.

I preordered the Rift for DCS and other combat flight and space sims. Very happy with it for that application.
Played Superhot, very addictive and enjoyable but more of a tech Demo. Robo Recall is also a blast but gets
repetitive quicly. Now, six months into ownership I've only spend about $30 on Software specifically for
the Rift. The tech is there but the software has not caught up yet.

So, using my own experience as a yardstick, the Rift is great for show and tell. A niche within the Flightsim niche.Not sure if those numbers are going to add up to continue developement towards a better headset.
 
Don't remember as there was so much else going on over the holiday.

However, I have to admit I even have some problems with the games on my PC nowdays.
No problems when I played 15-20 years ago, but don't have the time or the stamina to stare at the screen for hours any more. Sometimes I really hate this getting old stuff.

It was probably the Gear VR or Google cardboard you tried. You would have known which one it was if there was a $600-$700 piece of tech strapped to your head.

Tried Oculus at a tech convention. I believe VR gaming is the future, but the resolution needs to be better. I just can't bring myself to invest in the current hardware with that "Screen Door Effect". I never felt sick or queezy using it for about 15 minutes though.
 
I doubt they will hit those sales numbers.

VR is the next 3D TV, over hyped and not something most people will ever bother with.
Too many people have problems with motion sickness or just don't want to wear this stuff on their head.

I don't know man. I snagged an OR and the controllers from Best Buy when they went to 600 bucks...It really is impressive. They just need games.
 
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