What They Say
Chief Analyst Mike Boland of ARtillery Intelligence said in a video that the AR headset will rise from last year’s 250K units to just over 4 million in 2025 which is an installed base of 8.53 million at that time. That’s good growth, but around 420 times smaller than the smartphone installed base. Commercial revenues will continue to dominate based on strong ROI cases as well as the Microsoft US DOD contract for Hololens. However, the firm expects consumer expenditure to catch up in later years because of the larger number of buyers.
Apple’s influence is seen as a ‘wild card’ when its headsets, expected in late 2022 or early 2023 could create a ‘classic Apple halo effect’ that could ‘raise all boats’, by helping to boost software applications. Boland expects a ‘lighter form of AR than the Magic Leap ML1’. He also expects a ‘classic Apple ecosystem approach’.
What We Think
As with all of these forecasts, take them with a ‘pinch of salt’. Nobody knows…. (although this forecast doesn’t look outrageous to me!) (BR)
