Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets market fell 30.5 percent to 1.2 million units in the first quarter of 2018, according to an IDC report.
Much of the decline occurred due to the unbundling of screen-less VR headsets during the quarter. Vendors bundled these headsets free with the purchase of a high-end smartphone, but that practice largely came to an end by the start of 2018.
IDC anticipates the overall AR and VR market will return to growth over the remainder of the year as more vendors target the commercial AR and VR markets and low-cost standalone VR headsets such as the Oculus Go.
IDC forecasts the overall AR and VR headset market to grow to 8.9 million units in 2018, up 6 percent from the prior year and will be reaching 65.9 million units by 2022.
VR market
IDC forecasts Virtual Reality headsets to grow from 8.1 million in 2018 to 39.2 million by the end of 2022, representing a five-year CAGR of 48.1 percent.
The commercial VR market will grow from 24 percent of VR headset shipments in 2018 to 44.6 percent by 2022.
The Oculus platform, which is powering Samsung’s Gear VR, is likely to face pressure from both HTC’s Vive platform and Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform. HP, Dell, and Lenovo may target enterprise buyers with their VRs on Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform.
