Analyst firm IDC predicts solid growth in virtual reality headwear, but even greater growth in more modest wearable products, with the latter likely to significantly outpace the former over the next few years.

But before more VR kits ship, vendors must contend with the scary 2023 that analysts predicted last week found Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headset volumes decreased 44.6% year over year during the calendar second quarter.

“Downward pressures from the global economy are suppressing demand, while rising prices for the popular Quest 2 headset and the negative effects of aging hardware from multiple vendors are further hampering the growth of this market,” market researchers said. Ta.

IDC expects 8.5 million headsets to ship throughout 2023, which is not significantly more than the number of vendors that moved during 2017.

IDC expects 2024 to be a better year for head-mount kits, with 46.8% year-over-year growth expected due to new hardware from Meta and ByteDance and the debut of Apple’s Vision Pro.

By 2027, the market is expected to reach 30.3 million units worldwide.

That’s a lot of hats.

However, this is 350 million fewer pieces than the “earwear” subcategory of the wearables market studied by IDC. found Already 320 million people are shifting annually, increasing to 380 million by 2027.

IDC predicts that 211.4 million smartwatches will be shipped in the same year, and an additional 29.4 million smart wristbands.

Try doing the math. In 2027, approximately 620 million wearable devices will be shipped, compared to 30 million VR/AR devices.

Clearly, VR will not be mainstream in 2027. It will be repeated. Even though Apple entered the market.

However, IDC believes that several new brands will become mainstream in the wearables market.

“When most consumers think of wearables, they think of popular brands like Apple, Samsung, and Fitbit, and rightly so,” said Ramon T Llamas, research director for IDC’s Wearables team.

“However, growth is being driven by companies that do not have global ambitions as market leaders and are focused on specific regions such as China and India with full-featured devices that meet price expectations. Many small and medium-sized enterprises.

“Looking to the future, we see some of these brands being mentioned in the same breath as some of the world’s most popular brands, and expanding into adjacent markets where pent-up demand is not yet fully met. It’s not that difficult to imagine.”®