Global shipments of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets declined 54.4 percent in the first quarter of 2023, IDC said.
VR headsets represented 96.2 percent of headsets shipped.
Meta Platforms is leading the AR / VR headset market with 47.8 percent share though it lost ground to Sony’s PSVR 2.
Sony captured 35.9 percent share during the quarter. ByteDance (Pico) managed to grow its share from 4.4 percent last year to 6.1 percent this year thanks to new products and new markets. DPVR and HTC rounded out the top 5 with each having less than 2 percent share.
Apple is yet to announce its headset.
“Apple’s installed base of existing products and services will certainly help set the company’s headset apart from other AR/VR vendors though Apple’s share gains will be limited in the near term given the rumored prosumer approach and hefty price tag associated with the headset,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager, Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers at IDC.
AR headsets experienced another solid quarter of growth in 1Q23, up 12.6 percent year over year. The market was driven by simplistic headsets from the likes of Nreal (now Xreal), which act as external displays for connected devices.
Advanced headsets capable of simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) and 3D object manipulation suffered largely due to Microsoft’s struggles.
