The eyes don’t have it, but you’re all ears
Analyst firm IDC has forecast strong growth for virtual reality headwear, but even stronger growth for more modest wearables, with the latter to vastly outsell the former for years to come.
But before shipments of VR kit grow, vendors have to deal with a horror 2023 in which the analysts last week found quantities of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets dropped by 44.6 percent year-over-year during calendar Q2.
“Downward pressure from the global economy has curbed demand while the negative impact of a price hike on the popular Quest 2 headset combined with aging hardware from multiple vendors to further hobble growth in this market,” the market researcher found.
Across all of 2023, IDC expects 8.5 million headsets will ship, not many more than vendors moved during 2017.
