AR, VR Category to Soar in Next 18 Months as PC Makers Eye High End, Says IDC

form factor, have led have led the category to date, with Sony’s PlayStation VR, the HTC Vive and Facebook's Oculus Rift leading the pack, said IDC. In the next six to 18 months, PC vendors and Microsoft are expected to introduce tethered headsets and high-end stand-alone VR headsets. Advances in PCs and lower headset prices will make VR more accessible, and the additional motion-tracking and hand-tracking capabilities will help “blur the line between digital and physical reality,” said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. AR continues to lag VR because it's “harder to achieve,” said Ubrani. VR will lead the category over the forecast period, but IDC believes AR will have a much bigger impact overall. “Consumers are very likely to have their first AR experience via a mobile phone or tablet rather than a dedicated headset,” said Ubrani, citing Apple's recent introduction of ARKit as support. The commercial segment offers a large opportunity for AR headsets with investment occurring in vertical markets such as healthcare, manufacturing, field service workers and design, said the research firm. IDC believes many industrial jobs “will fundamentally change because of AR in the next 5-years, and these are much more opportunistic markets for dedicated AR headsets than the consumer market," said analyst Ryan Reith. IDC expects commercial shipments to account for over 80 percent of all AR headsets shipped in the next 5 years.