Meta Quest did not save the VR market but glasses can take

The VR headphones are out and AR glasses are in. Research The Counterpoint analysis company shows that global VR shipments are moving in 2024, despite cheap headsets for distribution such as Meta Quest 3S. The worse is that VR sales numbers may not be improved soon. The next step for these companies is glasses – with or without opportunities for expanded reality. Great technologies now have to persuade users thin glasses full of AI are better than pushing a heavy piece of plastic on their knives.

The number of VR headsets sent globally has fallen by 12% compared to the previous year. Headphone shipments fell as much as 5% in the last quarter of 2024. This was despite the grandfather of the virtual reality balloon, Meta, promoting $ 300 Meta Quest 3sS This cheap but capable handset gave the company, led by Mark Zuckerberg, an even greater market share of VR than in the previous quarter, consuming more slices of a decreasing pie. Sony managed to hold its naked 9% market share, probably because of its PlayStation VR2which received a boost from him Integration with PCVR At the end of last year, plus the usual discounts for the holiday.

The Gustr gets off the VR headphones, not just the really affordable ones. Thehe Apple Vision Pro It was similar in decline In the last few months of 2024, Counterpoint said the supplies of Apple’s first Spatial Computer had fallen by 43% in a quarter 2024. The company had a small impetus to sales when it carried its headphones to several global markets in the middle of last year, but did not help its market share only 2%.

The analysis company claims that the VR market will not win much space in the next two years. This is due most of the lack of content and the common complaint of discomfort from Launching a screen in front of your eyes for hours. These complaints are not new. They have been present for years, even more so when Meta was in promoting the shared world of VR called “Metaverse”. Now that we are a few years after the cycle of super, meta and zuckerberg have glasses of mind. Meta Ray-Ban’s unexpected success causes the company to grow to work with more transportable products. The company also sees these glasses as a means of getting used to its AI models based in a cloud designed to offer you a personal assistant directly from your face.

Counterpoint claims, Release “half a dozen” new ar glasses Models in 2025. Zuckerberg told investors earlier this year that it believes that the company can sell ‘billions’ AI AR goggles to keep the market completely, as it did with VR. Apple lags behind on its project for long-standing smart spectacles, though she May have something to show In the next few years, according to recent rumors.

Still, more technological players enter the VR/AR headphone game. Samsung and Google develop Project Moohan, AR headphones that seem Close the possibilities and –If you look at his rumors– The high price of $ 3500 Vision Pro.

I’ve used Meta-Ban Metaand I was not as impressed as the othersS They are good for shooting photos with no hands and video (albeit without focus or magnification control, makes them less than ideal). As for many advertised AI connectivity, I will still find use for a chatbot that routinely fails to correctly identify the objects around it.

Beyond smart sunglasses, the next step for lighter, functional worn devices is visual visualizations of reality such as scrolling a display with heads in front of your eyes. CES 2025 was flooded With these types of devices, some of which are integrated AI chatbots and flaming green text screens. I have put abundant and they all still do not feel like usable products. They lack a solid case of use without the possibilities that go beyond the typical smartphone.

Maybe Google, Meta, Apple, or any number of smaller companies can appear in 2025 with something that is both lightweight and powerful. The closer we have seen to this promise so far is Orion of MetaA pair of real ar glasses. Still, the problem with the AR-captive wearing is that you have to glue a powerful computer in an incredibly small package. The Meta PET AR performances project require an additional washer for functioning. This is a problem that according to messages Killed Apple’s plans for tied AR goggles. We may be able to avoid the discomfort of the headset in 2025, but instead we can be entangled in a mess of wires that pass from our faces to our pockets or make AI chatbot tell us through our glasses.