Worldwide shipments of virtual reality (VR) hardware should generate revenue of about $2.3 billion in 2016, reveals the International Data Corporation (IDC).
According to the IDC's first worldwide augmented and virtual reality forecast, VR will drive nearly all of the hardware volume this year, led by products from Samsung, Sony, HTC and Oculus.
Augmented reality (AR) hardware is forecast to ramp up over the next few years. The combined device markets will see hardware shipments surge past 110 million units in 2020, IDC noted.
IDC has identified three major device categories across the AR and VR markets. They include screenless viewers that use the screen of specific smartphones to drive an AR/VR experience; tethered head-mounted displays (HMDs) that utilise an existing compute device such as a PC, game console, or even a smartphone to drive a head-worn display; and standalone HMDs that integrate processing within the head-worn display itself.
"In 2016, the first major VR tethered HMDs from Oculus, HTC, and Sony should drive combined shipments of over two million units," said Tom Mainelli, VP for devices and displays at IDC.
He added: "When you combine this with robust shipments of screenless viewers from Samsung and other vendors launching later this year, you start to see the beginning of a reasonable installed base for content creators to target."
For its forecasting, IDC noted it has not included Google Cardboard-based products in its totals, nor any other viewer accessory that lacks electronics.
"Video games will clearly be the lead rationale for people to pick up an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or PlayStation VR this year," added Lewis Ward, research director of Gaming at IDC.
"While there have been some launch window hardware shipment hiccups that must be addressed near-term, I'm confident they will be ironed out before the holiday season. The addition of exciting new titles will lead to a new wave of VR HMD hardware interest among those buying for themselves or family members and friends," Ward said.
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