IDC estimates that in 2021 there will be about three times as many virtual reality devices as augmented reality, but the benefits of augmented reality will reach 50,000 million, doubling those of virtual reality.
firm IDC it has published a forecast for 5 years from now on what the state of virtual and augmented reality will be in terms of units sold and profits generated by each of them. In the graph we can see that the number of units sold of virtual reality devices will practically triple those of augmented reality, however the benefits will be more than double for augmented technology. 50,000 million dollars by 2021, is a large amount and may be one of the reasons why more and more companies are joining the augmented race. Microsoft, Google, Facebook and even Apple are some of the companies that have talked about the possibilities offered and will offer this new technology, and some of them already have commercial products.
According to IDC, augmented reality will take off first in the business environment and the devices will be significantly more expensive than virtual reality ones, as they will include more sophisticated technology. Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at IDC, has also indicated that low-cost devices can do more harm to technology than promote it, since those users who have a bad experience, with this kind of models such as Cardboard, will turn their backs on all technology.
