Study: Virtual reality market to hit $9.2 billion by 2021

The proliferation of cheaper, mass-produced consumer-grade virtual reality (VR) applications are finding their niche in retail.



The technology, which was often synonymous with customized and expensive equipment, has been a long-time staple for military training, civil flight training, and industrial 3D modeling.



As more consumer-grade technology is developed, more enterprises, including retail companies, will adopt VR technology for training, simulation, and education applications, according to “Virtual Reality for Enterprise and Industrial Markets,” a report from marketing intelligence firm Tractica.



These applications, along with virtual prototyping and 3D modeling, public entertainment attractions, and medical therapy, will help drive the enterprise market for VR hardware and content from $592.3 million in 2016 to $9.2 billion worldwide by 2021, the firm predicted.



“Cheaper, more readily accessible consumer-grade VR equipment is opening up new enterprise use cases, some of which have vast addressable markets,” said principal analyst Mark Beccue.



A broad range of industry players, both new and established, are already aggressively developing applications leveraging this new consumer-grade VR ecosystem, and processes are aimed squarely at the enterprise market, he added.