TrendForce: 14 million virtual reality headsets will be shipped in 2016

Virtual reality hardware will finally enter the market next year. A number of companies plan to offer their VR headsets and even more companies pin a lot of hopes on the rise of virtual reality next year since this will catalyze many people to buy new PCs. However, nobody knows for sure how many VR devices will actually be sold. For example, TrendForce, a well-known market tracker, believes that shipments of VR headsets will hit massive 14 million units next year.

“Since VR device’s strongest feature is providing users with an immersive audiovisual experience, its early application will be related to gaming,” said Jason Tsai, TrendForce’s wearable device analyst.

Using the eight million first-year sales figures of Microsoft Kinect in 2010 as a base for comparison, TrendForce estimates that VR devices will enjoy even higher sales next year.

Without any doubts, initially, 95 per cent of VR headsets will be sold to gamers, which is why their success will be determined by the number of high-quality titles available commercially. In addition, TrendForce expects high-tech and entertainment companies to promote VR.

Other analysts are considerably less optimistic about initial success of VR headsets. Market observers from Gartner expect that shipments of various VR gear will hit two million units in 2016, whereas analysts from BI Intelligence believe that shipments of VR helmets will be six million units already in calendar 2016. An analyst from FBR forecasts that various makers will sell five million of VR headsets.

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KitGuru Says: 14 million VR headsets is a lot. It took Sony around 1.5 years to sell 25 million PlayStation 4 consoles; sales of Microsoft’s Xbox One today are estimated to be 13 million. Perhaps, Sony, Microsoft, Oculus VR, HTC, Samsung and other will manage to sell 14 million headsets, but that will happen only if they really are lucky and there are good VR games.

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