Segmented AR Glasses Market to Reach 22.8 Million Shipments by 2022, Says Report

The global market for smart augmented reality glasses is projected to grow from 150,000 unit shipments in 2016 to 22.8 million units annually by 2022, said a Tractica report Friday. Revenue is forecast to grow from $138.6 million in 2016 to $19.7 billion by 2022. The market for the smart assisted-reality segment of the AR glasses category is in transition as assisted-reality headsets such as Google Glass remain niche products limited mostly to enterprise and industrial markets, said Tractica. A “more compelling” headset technology to assisted reality, which overlays digital information on users’ vision, is mixed reality (MR), which uses positional tracking and depth sensors, enabling interactions with holographic objects to provide a more immersive experience, said Tractica. “The market for smart glasses will have different entry points with devices like [Microsoft’s] HoloLens and Magic Leap at the top, modular devices like ODG’s R9 and Occipital Bridge in the middle, and assisted-reality glasses at the lower end,” said analyst Aditya Kaul. High- and medium-range smart AR glasses will likely be deployed in enterprise and consumer settings, while lower end assisted reality glasses with “glanceable” interfaces are best suited to industrial usage, said Kaul.