Spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR / VR) technologies in Asia Pacific will grow with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.4 percent (2021-26) and reach $16.6 billion by 2026.
The latest report on AR and VR industry from IDC said the penetration of the wireless-first strategy amongst enterprises, industries, and public sector organizations will drive AR/VR technology investment. There is a lack of consumer-friendly AR / VR technology, which will change over the next couple of years.
Vendors will improve VR goggles and AR for smart glasses and phones, and disrupt augmented audio technology, thereby offering promising growth opportunities to the consumer market.
“The impressive market growth for AR / VR technologies is driven by organizations’ demand for a new immersive experience in the way they do business and interact with clients and employees. But vendors also need to respond to AR / VR consumer applications to not miss out on high growth opportunities in the next few years,” says Lily Phan, Research Director for Future of Work, IDC Asia/Pacific.
Education, healthcare, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and professional services are the highest spending industries, and will dominate over the forecast period. These five industries registered 65 percent of 2022 spending for commercial use cases among the 19 industries covered by IDC.
Training emerged as one of the top three investment priorities for four out of five industries listed above. Collaboration is gaining incremental impetus, with education, discrete manufacturing, and professional services being the forerunners in adopting AR / VR technologies.
Investments in VR contributed to around 66 percent of the total market in 2022. It is driven primarily by the growth of consumer market adoption of virtual reality games. Spending on VR Training and collaboration will also lead to VR technology investments during the forecast period.
In Augmented Reality (AR) business, training, retail showcasing, and industrial maintenance will lead to increased investments. In both the reality types, hardware showcases maximum investment in 2022 followed by software, and services.
