Displays for Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality 2024-2034: Forecasts, Technologies, Markets

This report characterizes the display industry for virtual, augmented and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) devices, analyzing markets, technologies and players. It provides in-depth coverage of seven individual display technologies and forecasts their uptake in spatial computing from 2024 to 2034, alongside ten-year forecasts and historic data from 2010 onwards for the entire VR, AR and MR headset market. It outlines growing opportunity, with the VR, AR and MR display market forecast to grow to US$4.6B by 2034.

 

Virtual reality (VR) devices replace the real environment with the virtual, whereas augmented reality (AR) headsets optically overlay content on top of the real world. Some of these devices can deliver mixed reality (MR) experiences, with overlaid virtual content interacting with real objects. Collectively, these concepts are referred to as extended reality (XR) or spatial computing. Apple's Vision Pro has brought new excitement to this space, gaming-focused VR devices from Meta and others including Pico and Sony have sold in the millions, and AR devices from Vuzix, Microsoft and more have found a valuable place in industry.

 

Display systems form the heart of these devices, and the XR display market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11% to 2034. Alongside optics, displays are a key limiting technology for AR: displays need to be very bright, power efficient, high resolution, compact and acceptably priced all in one package. In VR, upgraded display systems can give a strong competitive edge, shrinking headsets for more comfortable wear, enhancing video passthrough MR and providing more immersive experiences.

 

As such, this report considers the application areas of VR devices, including those with MR passthrough capability, and AR devices, splitting these into narrow and wide field of view (FoV) devices. The latter of these are frequently MR-capable. The overall markets for these headsets are discussed, with the optics technologies that closely link to displays outlined. The display requirements for each of these device types, which differ substantially, are set out.

 

 

Seven different display technologies are analyzed in detail: liquid crystal displays (LCDs), OLED (organic light emitting diode) with TFT backplanes, OLED-on-silicon/micro-OLED, micro-light emitting diode (micro-LED) microdisplays, liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), digital micromirror device (DMD)/digital light processing (DLP) and laser beam scanning (LBS). This includes:

 

Additionally, overall forecasts from 2024-2034 VR and AR headset industries that form the market for these display technologies are provided, alongside historical data. Discussion of technologies that are expected to have a substantial impact in the further future, including holographic and light field displays, is included. Conclusions on the evolving future of the XR display market are identified.

 

 

This report follows from IDTechEx's existing titles "Optics for Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality", "Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Headsets" and "Micro-LED Displays", further deepening its comprehensive coverage of the fast-evolving XR industry. Its methodology involved extensive primary and secondary research with a key focus on interviewing executives and engineers within the display and wider XR ecosystems, in addition to attendance of major conferences including CES, SID Display Week and Laval Virtual. It provides 27 company profiles as well as further case studies of important developments in the XR display world.

 

 

IDTechEx has been covering the VR, AR and MR industry since 2015, staying close to the technical and market developments, interviewing key players worldwide, attending numerous conferences and delivering multiple consulting projects. IDTechEx's long history within this area has provided it a unique ability to curate a network within this space, bolstering its analysis in this report.

 

IDTechEx's report assesses the VR, AR and MR market in considerable detail, evaluating the different constituent technologies, evolving use-cases, potential adoption barriers and the difficulties of competing in this crowded space. The report includes multiple company profiles based on interviews with major players across the different technologies. IDTechEx also develops granular ten-year market forecasts and assessments of the potential for success of the technologies covered.

 

This report provides critical market intelligence about the diverse and fast-changing extended reality (XR) display industry. This includes:

 

Technology trends & player analysis

 

Market forecasts & analysis

o Overall headset market (VR including MR-capable devices, AR including MR-capable devices).

o Displays by panel technology (e.g., OLED-on-silicon, LCD, DLP, etc.). AR devices are divided into narrow vs. wide field of view.

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