The buzz around the Metaverse has revived the boring augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) market a bit and by 2022, shipments of AR/VR headsets are likely to reach 14.19 million units, compared to 9.86 million in 2021, year on year. annual increase of 36 percent, a new report has shown.

The year 2023 is forecast to see 18.8 million AR/VR device shipments, building on momentum from the Metaverse.

The growth momentum will come from increased demand for remote interactivity stemming from the pandemic, as well as the Meta Oculus Quest 2 price reduction strategy.

Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Oculus Quest 2 lead the market share for AR and VR, respectively.

“The theme of the Metaverse has led brands to actively plan and stimulate product shipment performance. However, the AR/VR headset market has yet to experience explosive growth due to two factors: component shortages and the difficulty of developing new technologies,” he said. global market research firm Trendforce.

In addition, aesthetic and size considerations have made the more optically and technically difficult Pancake design the first choice for new high-end products.

With no new products on the horizon, TrendForce believes that no other branded product has a chance to supplant the current status of Oculus or Microsoft until at least 2023.

The Oculus Quest 2, which costs between $200 and $400, is currently the most popular AR/VR headset on the consumer market.

The report expected Oculus to release an advanced version of the Quest product within two years, reaching $700 equivalent hardware performance or a discounted $500 retail price.

“This product is expected to expand the size of the high-end consumer AR/VR market. The commercial market is dominated by HoloLens 2, which cost more than $1,000 and more than $3,500,” the report says.

Apple has become another focus in the AR/VR device market.

“Strong product shipments from Oculus and Microsoft will likely force Apple to release relevant products to join the competition this year,” the report said.

However, given hardware performance requirements and gross profit margins, Apple is likely to target the commercial market and adopt the same pricing strategy as HoloLens.

However, new product launches this year by Apple, Meta and Sony may be delayed and will not add significant growth to the overall AR/VR market for now, the ATrendforce report noted.

–IANOS

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