FB Oculus captures half of extended reality market in 2020

New Delhi, March 11 Facebook-owned Oculus virtual reality (VR) headsets captured 53 per cent of the extended reality (XR) headset shipments in 2020 which declined 9 per cent (on-year), a new report has said.

According to latest research from Counterpoint's 'Global XR Model Tracker,' the annual decline was less than expected thanks to the Oculus Quest 2 performance during the holiday season.

The improved specifications like increased memory, larger battery life, and higher resolution and refresh rate, at an affordable price point were the clear drivers for Oculus growth.

"VR headsets captured more than 90 per cent of the total XR shipments. The adoption of VR, mainly for standalone form-factor, is increasing, as the industry is showing significant advancements in design, specifications and features at reasonable prices," said Research Director Peter Richardson.

Additionally, the availability of good-quality content across platforms is growing.

"The users of VR are limited to the gaming community, but enterprise users from the education and training sector gained some interest during the pandemic," Richardson said on Wednesday.

Sony grabbed the second spot riding on its strong PlayStation user base who went in for the five-year-old PlayStation VR.

"HTC, DPVR and Pico took the third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Enterprise-level sales deals, like for schools and training centres, helped Chinese players to grow in 2020," said senior analyst Karn Chauhan.

Oculus also dominated the list of top five XR devices. Three headsets in the list were from Oculus.

The segment holds a big potential in the coming decade, as players like Apple and Sony (PSVR 2) will enter or scale up in this segment.

Some players like Microsoft and Varjo have been taking a wider enterprise-level approach to target this segment. Microsoft now aims to enjoy wider adoption in the fast-growing consumer segment.

"XR's consumer use can be subdivided into VR and AR. For VR devices, the strongest use case is gaming, although social interaction will provide an interesting niche. Consumer use of AR has thus far largely been confined to smartphone displays via applications," the report mentioned.

( With inputs from IANS )