Spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR / VR) products and services is forecast to grow at 92 percent to $27 billion in 2018.
AR / VR market is expected to achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 71.6 percent over the 2017-2022 forecast period, according to IDC.
The consumer industry is the largest source of spending for AR / VR products and services, reaching $53 billion by 2022.
AR / VR spending in the retail, discrete manufacturing, and transportation industries will be 56 billion by 2022.
Spending on virtual reality gaming will be $7 billion in 2018. Retail’s AR / VR spending will be achieving a CAGR of 119.3 percent, followed by lab and field and film and television amusement.
Host devices spending will reach $10 billion. VR software will be reaching $5.7 billion in 2018.
With 141.6 percent CAGR, AR viewers represent the top technology category over the forecast period followed by AR systems integration, and AR customer application development.
The consumer sector will be spending $14.2 billion in 2018.
Distribution and services sector is estimated to achieve 34.4 percent CAGR over the forecast period with spend to reach nearly $72 billion by 2022.
Manufacturing and resources are estimated to achieve 18.5 percent CAGR over the forecast period. Public sector spending on AR VR is forecast to reach $33.5 billion by 2022.
“Commercial interest in both augmented and virtual reality continues to accelerate as new hardware ships, improved software appears, and more use cases evolve,” said Tom Mainelli, vice president of Devices and AR/VR at IDC.
The United States will achieve 99.1 percent CAGR over the forecast period. The Middle East & Asia, and Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) will experience similar CAGRs over the forecast period.
China will top all regions in AR / VR spending at $10.2 billion in 2018 with top spending in host devices, followed by VR software and AR software.
