The global virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) market is projected to reach $150 billion by 2022, according to a report released by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML).

While VR will account for one-fourth of the market ($30-34 billion), AR and MR will claim the remaining here-fourths ($90-117 billion), the report entitled “A Transforming World: virtual, augmented & mixed reality” added.

VR/AR/MR is enabling a 4th wave of computing power via a spatial computing revolution that integrates disruptive technologies such as sensors, Big Data, the cloud, AI, and wearables. It has the potential to become the "form factor" for nextgen computing as a universal, smart, and intuitive interface for the internet of things (IoT) ecosystem.

It could be the one device to disrupt and rule the world of technology - bridging the digital and physical worlds for the 3.5 billion internet users, 3.6 billion mobile broadband users, and 1.6 billion with TVs globally.

“We believe near-term adoption will be driven by smartphone take-up (5 billion installed base of gateway devices by 2018); demographics (Gen Y and Z check their smartphones 150x per day); skyrocketing investment (record $2 billion from VCs in the past 12 months, 1,300 start-ups in recent years); M&A (AAPL/FB/GOOG acquiring 10+ relevant companies); and content roll-out (Pokémon Go, etc.),” BofAML said in the report.

VR/AR/MR could have 250-300 million users by the early 2020s, with the long-term potential to capture 2/3 of our leisure time, and 50 per cent of the leisure dollars. Future reality could be transformative for the education, entertainment, financial services, gaming, healthcare, leisure, media, and retail industries.

AR/MR will ultimately impact every sector and company by transforming how they communicate, design, manufacture, and sell products. Over 50 per cent of organisations are testing AR given its potential to boost productivity (30 per cent faster assembly), reduce costs (25-60 per cent savings on installation & maintenance), and improve output (40-90 per cent higher accuracy).

“Given the technical hurdles (processing speed, bandwidth, AI-analytics), we see the tipping point for exponential growth coming in 2019-20. We also identify longer-term risks around the psychological and neurological impacts, social isolation, hindered vision, privacy and cybersecurity,” the report said. – TradeArabia News Service