Idc Predicts Ar And Vr Headset Shipments Will Hit 100M By 2021 As Apple Pushes Arkit Powerful Imacs

While Apple is getting serious with both AR and VR this year thanks to iOS 11 and more powerful Mac hardware, IDC has new data on the forecast for augmented and virtual reality mainstream adoption. IDC expects “dedicated AR and VR headsets collectively” to reach nearly 100 million units by 2021 compared to just under 10 million units last year.

IDC says screenless VR headsets that require a smartphone to work have been the most popular while dedicated VR headsets from Sony, HTC, and Oculus gained in popularity by the end of last year.

In terms of PC hardware used to drive VR experiences, Apple made demonstrating virtual reality development a focus of its new iMacs earlier this month at WWDC. Apple also has an official Metal 2 Developer Kit that supports eGPUs and VR headsets.

While IDC expects VR to lead the market over AR for now because augmented reality is “harder to achieve,” the new data does consider Apple’s effort in this space with ARKit in iOS 11 coming later this year.

You can read the full report here.