Market analysts from Omdia say that the XR market (which they define as a combination of AR, VR and MR) will grow from 24 million units in 2023 to almost 90 million units in 2028, a CAGR of 67%. In terms of revenues, the market (XR displays) will reach $1.15 billion in 2023.
As you can see from the graph above, VR applications still take up most of the market, and Omdia does not seem to think AR technology will reach mass markets soon, maybe only in 2028.
Looking at 2022, Omdia's Senior display analyst, Kimi Lin, says that for the AR market the leading technology is OLED microdisplays, with a market share of 70% and shipments of 670,000 units. This is followed by laser-beam systems (188,700 shipments), LCoS (69,300), MicroLED (30,900) and DLP (3,200).
The VR market is still dominated by LCDs (shipments of almost 13 million units), followed by AMOLED displays (166,500) and OLED microdisplays (358,600). The VR market will change in near future - this year Sony is set to release the Sony PSVR 2 with an AMOLED display, and Apple will release their AMOLED+OLED microdisplay-powered headset. But OLED makers will have to find ways to reduce price to support future growth.
Comments
This report focuses on the microdisplays (display engine) themselves, so it's likely they already doubled it compared to a device shipment forecast...
I think that the units for actual OLED micro displays in VR or AR head sets should be doubled -- as the end-user devices usually contain one micro display for each of the end-user's two eyes.