I mad e promise to the boss that I would not write one more thing about Apple’s Vision Pro yet here I am, again. Apple ‘s entry into the Chinese extended reality (XR) market with its Vision Pro headset is set to stimulate the industry supply chain and investments, even as overall market growth remains sluggish, according to a report by Cinno Research.
Domestic consumer-grade XR device sales in China are expected to increase by just 6.5% year-on-year to 757,000 units in 2023, the report said. While augmented reality (AR) sales surged 138.9%, virtual reality (VR) sales declined 14% due to a lack of compelling software content.
However, Apple’s Vision Pro, launched as a spatial computer, is expected to tilt industry resources further towards XR and trigger new thinking about the development direction of mixed reality (MR) devices. The share of entry-level MR products or high-end AR/VR products with features like full-color see-through capabilities is projected to increase by 150.3% year-on-year in China.
Cinno Research predicts that as technology advances and the market matures over the next 3-5 years, MR devices with high-level interaction and computing capabilities will gain popularity. However, the firm expects domestic consumer-grade XR device sales to decline by 5.4% overall in 2024 due to the VR market’s ongoing struggles.
