AR/VR spending is expected to jump 68.8% in 2019: IDC

Worldwide spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is forecast to be nearly $20.4 billion in 2019, an increase of 68.8 percent over the $12.1 billion, as per IDC report.

"Early market developments indicate adoption of AR/VR technologies on a worldwide basis will expand for a decade or longer. The innovators that serve a broad base of industries support dynamic end-user needs through the growing options in hardware and software solutions. We believe services will play a more prominent role in enterprise investments as the market matures," said Marcus Torchia, research director, Customer Insights & Analysis.

IDC said consumer spending volume will determine three of the four largest AR/VR use cases in 2019: virtual reality games ($4.0 billion), video/feature viewing ($2.0 billion), and augmented reality games ($616 million).

Forward-thinking companies continue to move aggressively to embrace both augmented and virtual reality technologies," said Tom Mainelli, program vice president, Devices & AR/VR at IDC.

Mainelli said, "New hardware and software launches in 2018 are driving new use cases and improving the viability of existing ones. We expect more new products from major vendors to appear in 2019, helping to drive innovation at greater scale going forward."

The research firm also pointed out that hardware will account for more than half of all AR/VR spending throughout the forecast, followed by software and services.

The largest category of hardware spending will be host devices, but AR viewers will make notable gains with a five-year CAGR of 128.3 percent.

AR software spending will make similar gains with a five-year CAGR of 121.8 percent, overtaking VR software by 2021. And services spending will be bolstered by strong CAGRs for AR custom application development (133.0 percent), AR systems integration (130.4 percent), and AR consulting services (121.9 percent).