Virtual reality (VR) technology will have an installed base of 256 million users — generating revenues of over $60 billion in 2022, said ABI Research.
The consumer VR market is expected to account for most of the VR market’s revenue. VR technology’s commercial and enterprise space will expand its share reaching over 40 percent of the VR market by 2022 against 26 percent in 2015.
ABI Research said content availability remains an issue, but healthy strides were made in the past year, particularly in Asia-Pacific and China with location based VR. Further trials and launches will accelerate the adoption of immersive content across the market and expand the use of VR as a tool for training, design, preparatory work and planning.
“While the consumer space often garners the largest share of attention the market potential is much wider and we’ve already seen very promising interest in verticals like Retail, Healthcare, Automotive, Education, and Real Estate / Architecture / Engineering / Construction,” said Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research.
VR experiences range quite widely from more basic seated/standing mobile HMD configurations to dedicated location based VR installations and VR arcades that allow for 6DOF or room-scale experiences.
The rise of wireless HMDs, standalone VR, and 6DOF mobile VR will help narrow the gaps between these different classes of experiences. Additionally, further technology advancements/introductions are on the horizon like eye tracking, foveated rendering, and increasingly higher resolution screens.
“We currently see clear delineations between AR and VR today and into the near future. We expect these lines of demarcation to begin fading as the technologies increasingly reach maturity and saturation, perhaps then becoming better suited to the mixed and merged reality monikers that some use today,” said Sam Rosen, managing director and VP at ABI Research.
