Mobile virtual reality market is expected to reach $10.9 billion
Market intelligence firm Tractica says, the global market for mobile virtual reality (VR) hardware and content will reach $10.9 billion USD by 2021.
According to the company’s latest research, more than 88 percent of all consumer-grade VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) sold in 2016 were mobile headsets. These headsets are powered by a smartphone rather than a PC or laptop which is the case with HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
Tractica anticipates that the mobile domination of the market will continue for years to come, with mobile HMDs constituting three-quarters of annual consumer-grade HMD shipments in 2021.
“Mobile VR has a tremendous amount of momentum, but there is much work still to be done,” said Mark Beccue, principal analyst at Tractica in a written statement. “VR is an extremely complex technology and there are many obstacles to a frictionless, optimized user experience.”
Beccue added that, over time, technological breakthroughs in optics, processing efficiencies, cloud computing, software application development and streaming, as well as increased access to higher-quality broadband, will improve and accelerate the general availability of consistently high-quality VR experiences.
A recent report by Super Data suggests, virtual reality made $1.8 billion USD in its first commercial year, with 6.3 million devices sold. Amongst the topp-brands, Samsung Gear VR came out as the leader with 5 million devices sold.
AR/VR advising company Digi-Capital says, in 2016 VCs and corporate investors poured $2.3 billion into VR/AR startups, or over 3 times the $700+ million invested in 2015. The company suggests 300% investment growth in 12 months is impressive in any sector, let alone such an early stage market.