Virtual Reality Market is Making A Comeback

Over the last year, the Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) headphone market were in the dumps, decreasing for four consecutive quarters. VR headphone unit volumes dropped 34 percent in the next quarter. Nonetheless, it could be premature to write off the current market, and VR/AR headphone volumes have submitted a small yet meaningful dip in the next quarter, possibly paving the way for a wider recovery.

Here is what investors will need to understand.

Transitioning from screenless audiences to standalone headsets

IDC this week published its quotes on the VR/AR headphone marketplace for its next quarter, and the statistics demonstrate that unit volumes jumped 9.4percent in contrast to a year ago. Discounts and other promotional actions assisted improve volumes, while programmers continue to discharge more VR articles too.

“The VR marketplace is finally beginning to develop its own,” IDC senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrani stated in a statement. “On the customer front, the combination of reduced costs and improved content is starting to resonate with customers. Meanwhile, commercial adoption can also be rising for a variety of use cases, such as design, training, and showcasing.”

The marketplace is still largely dominated by VR headsets, which represent 97 percent of this current market, according to IDC. Overall VR unit volumes globally came in at 1.9 million in the next quarter. The principal trend that IDC is stressing is that screenless audiences (those attachments that enable you to strap your telephone for your face) are on the decrease, while standalone products such as Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) brand new Oculus Move that does not have to be tethered to some high-profile PC are on the upswing. Screenless audiences saw volumes dip 59 percent while standalone cans plummeted 429 percent (off a small base).

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Standalone headsets currently represent over 20 percent of this marketplace. Though the performance will lag tethered cans because of a relative lack of processing capacity, the lower cost points and increased advantage are somewhat more approachable for mainstream users. Oculus Go costs only $200, in contrast to Oculus Rift’s $350 price tag, which does not even include the price of another PC (they start at $800 as a portion of their organization’s Oculus Ready Program) to power the unit.

Xiaomi’s Mi VR, that relies on and seems almost like the Oculus Proceed, can be gaining traction. Those two models united shipped nearly 250,000 units globally, which makes it the most common standalone headset presently available on the current market, according to IDC.

Tethered cans are still selling well, with unit volumes exceeding 1 million units for the next time. Sony (NYSE: SNE) continues to lead the way with its PSVR, a VR headset attachment created for the organization’s favorite PS4 gaming console, in 463,000 units. Oculus was No. 2 in tethered cans with 300,000, followed closely by HTC with 230,000.

Total, Facebook’s Oculus is leading the way

When aggregating all VR types, Oculus is the industry leader, with 26 percent of the general marketplace, as the Facebook subsidiary addresses most the inherent categories with various products.

So far as AR is worried, most customers’ vulnerability to AR technologies is presently delivered through mobiles. The committed AR headphone market remains in its infancy, with Lenovo capable to catch the No. 1 spot with a mere 23,000 in unit volumes. Lenovo established its Mirage AR headset this past year along with a Star Wars: Jedi Challenges match, a package that IDC notes was in charge of the majority of Lenovo’s shipments.

The AR market might require more time to grow, however, the VR marketplace is beginning to find its foundation.

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