Meta Quest Did not Save VR Market, However Glasses Might Take Over

VR headsets are out, and AR glasses are in. Research from evaluation agency Counterpoint exhibits that the worldwide VR shipments trended down via 2024 regardless of proliferation low-cost headsets just like the Meta Quest 3s. Worse, VR gross sales numbers could not enhance any time quickly. The following step for these firms are glasses—with or with out augmented actuality capabilities. Huge tech now must persuade shoppers skinny glasses stuffed to the brim with AI are higher than shoving a heavy piece of plastic on their noggins.

The variety of VR headsets shipped globally fell by 12% year-over-year. Headset shipments fell a complete 5% within the final quarter of 2024. That was regardless of the grandaddy of the digital actuality hype bubble, Meta, selling the $300 Meta Quest 3s. That low-cost however succesful headset gave the Mark Zuckerberg-led firm a good larger VR market share than in earlier quarters, consuming extra slices of a dwindling pie. Sony managed to carry on to its naked 9% market share, probably due to its PlayStation VR2, which obtained a lift from its integration with PCVR late final 12 months, plus the same old vacation reductions.

The luster is coming off the VR headset, and never simply the actually reasonably priced ones. The Apple Vision Pro was equally in decline in the previous few months of 2024. Counterpoint stated shipments of Apple’s first “spatial pc” fell by 43% within the quarter of 2024. The corporate had a small increase in gross sales when it took its headset to some choose world markets in the midst of final 12 months, however it didn’t assist its market share when it ended the 12 months at simply 2%.

The evaluation agency contended that the VR market gained’t achieve a lot floor within the subsequent two years. That’s largely resulting from a scarcity of content material and the frequent grievance about discomfort from shoving a screen in front of your eyes for hours on finish. These complaints aren’t new. They’ve been current for years, much more so again when Meta was all in on selling the shared VR world known as “the metaverse.” Now that we’re a number of years previous the hype cycle, Meta and Zuckerberg have glasses on the thoughts. The sudden success of the Meta Ray-Ban has the corporate raring to go on extra wearable merchandise. The corporate additionally sees these glasses as a car for getting you used to its cloud-based AI fashions meant to give you a private assistant straight out of your face.

Counterpoint claimed the AR glasses market will develop 30% via 2026. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses proved such a giant hit that Meta now hopes to release “half a dozen” new AR glasses fashions in 2025. Zuckerberg instructed traders earlier this 12 months he thinks the corporate could sell “billions” of AI-enabled AR glasses to utterly nook the market prefer it did with VR. Apple is additional behind on its long-rumored sensible spectacles undertaking, although it may have something to show within the subsequent few years, in keeping with the most recent rumors.

And nonetheless, extra large tech gamers are entering into the VR/AR headset sport. Samsung and Google are growing Venture Moohan, an AR headset that appears close in capabilities and—if you look at its rumored specs—the excessive value to the $3,500 Imaginative and prescient Professional.

I’ve used the Ray-Ban Meta, and I wasn’t as impressed as others. They’re positive for capturing hands-free pictures and video (although with out management for focus or zoom makes them lower than ideally suited). As for the much-touted AI connectivity, I’ve but to discover a use for a chatbot that routinely fails to establish objects round it appropriately.

Past sensible sun shades, the subsequent step for lighter, characteristic packed wearable units is augmented actuality visuals like a heads-up show scrolling in entrance of your eyes. CES 2025 was flooded with these sorts of units, a few of which with built-in AI chatbots and screens with blazing inexperienced textual content. I’ve placed on loads, and all of them nonetheless don’t really feel like usable merchandise. They lack a stable use case with out capabilities that transcend a typical smartphone.

Maybe Google, Meta, Apple, or any variety of smaller firms could present up in 2025 with one thing that’s each mild and highly effective. The closest we’ve seen to that promise thus far is Meta’s Orion, a pair of true AR glasses. And nonetheless, the problem with AR-capable wearables is that it’s worthwhile to stick a robust pc in an extremely small package deal. Meta’s pet AR spectacles undertaking requires an extra knowledge puck to operate. It’s a difficulty that reportedly killed Apple’s plans for tethered AR glasses. We might be able to keep away from the discomfort of headsets in 2025, however we could as a substitute be tangled in a multitude of wires working from our faces to our pockets or have AI chatbots speaking to us via our glasses.