A lot of companies have understood the great potential of augmented and virtual reality technologies, and that is why business applications in the near future will show the most interesting growth. In the long run, businesses will be more focused on virtual reality, while in the short term, augmented reality technologies will be more successful in the consumer world.

To date, the sector with the highest AR / VR spending is the consumer sector, which is expected to generate $ 6.8 billion business revenues in 2018 and with an average annual growth rate of around 45% up to 2021. In this context, the driving application is predictably the gaming industry, and the most significant expense comes from the hardware viewers. The business world, on the other hand, is more fragmented. However, it will represent the majority (about 60%) of spending on systems and solutions of virtual and augmented reality already by 2021.

IDC expects three-figure percentage growth rates from now to 2021: the growth of most applications will be in the public sector (+ 157% approximately per year), while those that will generate more business in 2018 will be the distribution and services sector with 4.1 billion dollars and manufacturing with 3.2. Among the specific application sectors, on the other hand, the one that will weigh the most in 2018 will be retail.

According to data from P & S Market Research, the match between virtual reality and augmented reality, is won by the first for the moment, bringing home about 60% of the total turnover. By 2023 things should reverse, with the AR growing at a rate of 73.8%, higher than that of virtual reality. The AR thrust, analysts say, will come from demand in sectors such as tourism and retail. As far as hardware and software are concerned, hardware devices have the privilege of about 65% of the turnover at present, first and foremost virtual reality viewers. But the demand for software solutions is destined to travel faster.

Some of the most important companies, including Oculus VR, Sony and Google have entered this market. Facebook did the same, buying several companies AR / VR after acquiring Oculus for 2.1 billion dollars. Investments by technology “giants” suggest how these innovations will become increasingly integrated with content platforms for the consumer market. According to a recent research by Goldman Sachs, sales in AR and VR should reach 95 billion dollars by 2025: the greater demand will come from the “creative industry” in particular from video games, live events, video entertainment and retail – but there will also be applications in different sectors such as health, education, military and real estate. Total expenditure for these types of products and services should pass from $ 11.4 billion in 2017 to nearly $ 215 billion in 2021 globally, with an average annual rate of over 110% (source IDC).

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