According to the latest report released by the market research agency IDC, with the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation, the global augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset shipments will grow at the No. 1 rate in 2023. There was a sharp drop in the quarter. According to the report, shipments of AR/VR headsets in the first quarter of 2023 will drop by 54.4% year-on-year, of which VR headsets will account for 96.2%.
Among the top five manufacturers of AR/VR headsets, Meta continued to lead with a 47.8% share; Sony, with its PSVR 2 headset, accounted for 35.9% of the market in the quarter; ByteDance (Pico) with new products and new markets, whose share grew from 4.4% last year to 6.1% this year; DPVR and HTC came in fourth and fifth, each with less than 2% share.
Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for mobile and consumer device trackers at IDC, offered his opinion as follows:
The global economy is in a downturn, but for the AR/VR headset market, the likes of Apple will keep pouring in in the weeks and months ahead.
Against the backdrop of Sony's challenge to Meta, Apple's upcoming first headset is highly anticipated. Although Apple's headset is positioned at the high end, it will subdivide the high-end market that is different from the existing mainstream consumer headsets, and its share will not increase significantly in the short term, but Apple's influence will attract many consumers.