If the figures of the big purchases by some technological giants, such as Facebook and its acquisition of the Oculus Rift company, or the efforts of the main mobile technology development brands towards the creation of virtual glasses (Samsung, HTC) or the interest of the main giants of the movie industry is not enough indication of where the virtual reality market is heading; the virtual reality study and the market forecasts towards hardware and software sales are devastating, according to the study carried out by Kzero.
Today we explain the market trend as virtual reality company involved in various projects.
The Virtual Reality market; an exponential reality
In the coming years there will be an increase in both virtual reality devices and applications for these, since as often happens in many cases the content is what feeds these devices that accompany us today, either smartphones, wearables, etc..
The main consumers of virtual reality can be identified in three main groups:
– Hardcore Gamers
– Early Adopters
– Early Majority
In the graph where we can see the consumption of the three main groups, sales in 2014 were 200k units sold. This is a year in which this technology is beginning to emerge, thanks to the purchases and developments mentioned at the beginning of this article by the major players. From 2015 onwards, sales are expected to reach 5.7M units and 23.8M in 2018. We are talking about a cumulative total, between 2014 and 2018, of 56.8 million virtual reality devices sold.
Virtual Reality Devices
The sector points out that practically all of these devices will be virtual reality glasses such as; Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear, Cardboard, Durovis Dive or new models that will appear on the market. The average price of these glasses is about $300 in 2014 and is predicted to fall by $50 per year until 2018 (fall due to market competition).
The volume of revenue for devices sold from 2014 can be seen in the following table where sales increase already in 2015 by $1.4 billion compared to 2014, thanks to a forecast of 5.7 million devices purchased. In the graph, below, we see a progressive increase year by year, achieving a cumulative 2014-2018 of $8.4 billion, a more than considerable figure if we add content to it.
Virtual Reality content
The real driver of this exponential growth in device sales is content. Virtual reality applications, 360º video and games, are the type of content that will be consumed in these VR devices and what will make more and more people in different markets acquire new units. In order to calculate the turnover forecasts for this concept, an active user forecast has been created (it is estimated that a single device has more than one user).
This chart shows that revenue in 2014 was about $30 million based on about 600k active users. The forecast is to increase to $947 million in 2015 with 15.7 million active users. Let’s keep in mind that for this year Facebook and Youtube have already announced that their platforms will support 360º videos, one of the key contents on which virtual reality will work.
The total estimated turnover for 2018, in content, is $2.8 billion with more than 47.6 million users. A cumulative total of $7.7 billion in content over the next few years, up to 2018.
In summary and to understand in a single graph the revenues that the virtual reality market will provide in the coming years, we attach this graph where we can see the total sales between devices and content in the total consumer market.
Market estimates and the way in which the big players are getting involved in this technology show that virtual reality is going to be a must-have content in the day-to-day life of digital content consumers. If you have not yet had contact with virtual glasses and want to experience its potential do not hesitate to contact us. Two Reality is a virtual reality agency that has been developing augmented, immersive and virtual reality content for more than 8 years.
Source: Kzero
