Mobile Virtual Reality Market Expected to Reach $10.9B

The global market for mobile virtual reality (VR) hardware and content will reach $10.9 billion by 2021, according to market intelligence firm Tractica LLC.

Tractica estimates that more than 88 percent of all consumer-grade VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) sold in 2016 were mobile headsets, and it anticipates that the mobile domination of the market will continue for years to come, with mobile HMDs constituting three-quarters of annual consumer-grade HMD shipments in 2021.

“Mobile VR has a tremendous amount of momentum, but there is much work still to be done,” said Mark Beccue, principal analyst at Tractica. “VR is an extremely complex technology and there are many obstacles to a frictionless, optimized user experience.”

Beccue added that, over time, technological breakthroughs in optics, processing efficiencies, cloud computing, software application development and streaming, as well as increased access to higher-quality broadband, will improve and accelerate the general availability of consistently high-quality VR experiences.

“While VR for mobile is currently a less immersive experience than PC and console-based VR, the gap will narrow considerably between 2017 and 2021,” Beccue said. “There is a real possibility that mobile will become not only the choice for simpler VR experiences, but the choice for the vast majority of all VR experiences.”

Tractica is a market intelligence firm that focuses on human interaction with technology.