IDC: ‘All eyes will be on Apple’ as Meta’s VR strategy ‘is not sustainable’

A recent press release from research firm IDC predicts that Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) will not be able to compete in the mixed reality business in the long term if its strategy remains unchanged.

A similar concern was expressed by technology industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo late last month. Kuo predicted that Meta would take steps to cut investment in virtual reality, creating an opportunity for Apple and other competitors. He also wrote that Meta’s practice of selling VR headsets at a loss is unsustainable.

According to an IDC release, Meta currently owns 90 percent of the VR headset market. In second place is ByteDance’s Pico with just 4.5%. Overall, shipments of VR headsets grew by 241.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022. But the industry experienced significant supply issues in the first quarter of 2021, contributing to a “favorable comparison”for this year’s first quarter.

In other words, don’t expect Apple’s first headset to immediately ship many more devices than Meta’s Oculus Quest 2. This is just the first step in a long-term plan to own the mixed reality market. As noted in several reports over the past couple of years, this plan will eventually include low-cost augmented reality glasses and other products that will aim to expand the user base for mixed reality equipment.

Apple and Meta aren’t the only companies working on mixed reality hardware products for the mass market. In April, we reported that Amazon posted several job listings with candidates who can help the company create an “advanced”AR/VR product. And in December, we learned from job listings that Google was planning a new augmented reality device and operating system.