After an eventful 2016 when numerous virtual reality headsets finally hit the market, 2017 has been relatively quiet in terms of new devices entering the scene. The market is still dominated by the same big players as Samsung (Gear VR), Sony (PlayStation VR) and Facebook (Oculus Rift) accounted for more than 60 percent of global VR and AR headset shipments in the second quarter of 2017.
According to IDC, global headset shipments grew 25.5 percent (year-over-year) in the second quarter, reaching 2.1 million units. Despite growing interest in augmented reality — Apple and Google both released an AR development kit for their mobile platforms this year — virtual reality still accounts for 98 percent of shipments in the AR/VR market. While it will probably take some time before we see the first consumer-focused AR headsets, we will soon get a glimpse of the technology through our mobile phones.