Citing feedback from the FCC, tech company Robert Bosch modified its suggestion for more flexible use of the 60 GHz band (see 2210030051). In a docket 21-264 post Thursday on a talk with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Bosch representatives said the company is open to low-power regulation for all the channels. It said channel 3 might not be a suitable home for high-bandwidth augmented and ritual reality applications, so the FCC might want to consider a "look back" sometime after it adopts 60 GHz sharing rules to determine if AR and VR have been substantially deployed on channel 3.
Worldwide spending on augmented and virtual reality is forecast to reach $13.8 billion this year, growing to $50.9 billion in 2026, said IDC Wednesday. VR will generate over 70% of the category spending; overall spend will be about evenly split between commercial and consumer applications, said the research firm. "The AR/VR market has been taking slow but sure steps in recent years and is poised to take longer strides in the years to come," said analyst Ramon Llamas, noting product improvements over first-generation devices. In consumer markets, the fastest spending growth for VR and AR will be in emergency response, AR games, internal videography and collaboration, IDC said. Commercial use cases expected to receive the most investment are industrial maintenance, training and collaboration, it said. Stand-alone and tethered head-mounted displays will account for over a third of all AR/VR spending by 2026, it said.
Quest Oculus VR headset users will no longer require a Facebook account to log into Quest starting next month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook page Thursday. “We're rolling out new Meta accounts that you can use with our VR headsets instead,” Zuckerberg said: “This will give everyone more choice about how you show up in the metaverse.” The announcement was welcomed by followers: The post had over 47,000 “likes” or “loves” 20 minutes later.
Global shipments of virtual-reality headsets jumped 241.6% year over year in Q1, reported IDC Thursday. Prolonged demand and easing supply bottlenecks “helped drive the category forward” during the quarter, though last Q1 a year earlier “was plagued with supply issues and thus provided a favorable comparison,” it said. Meta captured 90% share of the VR headset market during the quarter, as its Quest 2 “remains immensely popular and Meta continues to offer more exclusive content while subsidizing hardware,” said IDC. "Meta continues to pour dollars into developing the metaverse but the strategy of promoting low-cost hardware at the expense of profitability isn't sustainable in the long run," said analyst Jitesh Ubrani.
“Renewed immersive opportunities” will spark a surge in shipments of virtual-reality headsets to 90 million units globally in 2027, reported ABI Research Thursday. “After years of slow but steady growth in limited use cases,” VR is poised for “a market explosion” in the next five years, as consumer interest in VR games and media “continues to grow after COVID accelerated activity,” it said. The VR market “is no stranger to false starts,” said ABI analyst Eric Abbruzzese. Though the technology never previously got widespread consumer traction, the increased capability of VR hardware combined with demand for immersive content in numerous markets, is “a significant opportunity,” he said. Stand-alone headsets will comprise most of the shipments through the forecast period, rising at a 40% compound annual growth rate to 79 million in 2027, said ABI: “Tethered and mobile-based VR devices make up the rest, with tethered favored for gaming by consumers and simulation and training for enterprises.”
Augmented and virtual reality are expanding beyond gamer and social media circles and entering the mainstream, said a recent eMarketer report. About 89.4 million U.S. users are forecast to experience AR this year, rising to 110.3 million in 2025; about 67 million will use VR, rising to 75.4 million in three years as VR headsets improve and AR spreads to new use cases, it said. Social media continue to drive AR usage, with many people first experiencing AR when they use a filter or lens on Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok. This year, 16.6% of the U.S. population will use social network AR, rising to 19.8% by 2025, it said.
D.C.'s Museum of Science Fiction launched a global competition to recognize the importance of virtual-reality design and innovation, it emailed Thursday. The program is open to students, architects, designers, engineers, builders, programmers, and artists in the U.S. and abroad. The goal is to “inspire immersive and creative VR designs” that show the “unlimited possibilities that virtual spaces offer museum visitors,” said Greg Viggiano, executive director. Finalists will be selected based on designs submitted online; an awards ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 15. The grand prize winner will receive $1,000, with support provided by Roddenberry Entertainment. Registration information is here.
Extended reality (XR) investments heated up this week, with funding announcements from Qualcomm and U.K.-based banking firm BGF. Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund Monday, saying it plans to invest up to $100 million in developers and companies building “unique, immersive XR experiences,” plus associated core AR and AI technologies. The company’s portfolio of related initiatives -- Snapdragon XR Platforms, the Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform and XR Labs Europe -- were created to “strengthen the XR ecosystem," it said. Referencing a “new generation of spatial computing,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is working to enable consumers and businesses to engage in the metaverse and allow the “physical and digital worlds to be connected.” Qualcomm’s fund will help foster innovation through venture investment and developer ecosystem grants for content projects, Amon said. Grant recipients may have access to nascent XR platform technology, hardware kits, a global network of investors, and co-marketing and promotion opportunities, he said. BGF, meanwhile, announced a $3 million investment in VR and AR learning business ARuVR, rebranded from Vrtuoso, it emailed Tuesday. It called ARuVR a turnkey XR and software-as-a-service platform that puts content creation, distribution and management "into the hands of the user,” allowing businesses to develop and deploy at-scale their own VR and AR learning experience, “with minimal training and in a matter of minutes.” The global market for XR was valued at $25.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $397.8 billion by 2026, BGF said, citing Mordor Intelligence data.
Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 took 78% of the AR/VR market in 2021, driving a 92.1% spike in AR/VR headset shipments to 11.2 million, said IDC Monday. The Quest 2’s "very accessibly priced headset” moved beyond the core gaming market, “piquing the interest of non-gamers as well as businesses,” said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. Meta “still lacks major competitors,” but that’s likely to change over the next 12-18 months when Sony is expected to re-enter the space with the PSVR2, Ubrani said. IDC also expects Apple and other smartphone vendors to eventually launch AR/VR headsets. AR headsets comprise a "small fraction" of the overall AR/VR headset market, with most sales coming from the commercial segment, said analyst Tom Mainelli. "Consumer AR is still largely the domain of smartphones and tablets and will likely remain so in the near term," he said. The metaverse is driving hype -- and investment -- for AR, VR, and adjacent technologies, but IDC doesn't expect it to have an impact on headset volume near term. DPVR was in second place with 5.1% share last year, on success in Asian markets; ByteDance’s Pico VR had 4.5% share on strength in Asian and North American markets, said the research firm.
Crestron and Modus are demonstrating how customers can use the Modus VR platform to create room layouts using Crestron products to “pretest the viability of their space and technology," at InfoComm in Orlando this week, said the companies Tuesday. Modus VR is an effective way for Crestron dealers to “pre-model installations,” said Bob Bavolacco, Crestron director-technology partner programs. With the Modus platform, users can see Crestron product specifications, such as audio and occupancy sensor projection patterns. Integrators using Modus VR technology and consumer-grade VR headsets can pretest physical equipment and furniture configurations and demonstrate layouts in true scale, the companies said.