According to Fortune Business Insights, by 2028 the global virtual reality (VR) market size will reach USD 84.09 billion. To give this number perspective, VR’s market size reached USD 4.42 billion in 2020.(1) There are myriad reasons for this optimistic appraisal of the technology’s financial future, but most exciting are its potential applications.
VR is still a nascent technology; the first consumer-grade headsets made it to market in the early 1990s. While that may seem quite some time ago, television and radio have been with us for far longer. These technologies when they first debuted to the public were comparatively primitive compared to their contemporary descendants. One can think of VR today as quickly becoming the ancestral devices of tomorrow. As advanced as we think of VR now, its capabilities will pale compared to what VR is likely to be in the coming decades.
Already, VR has found its footing in entertainment, healthcare, engineering, and education. A few examples: Video game makers have created realistic-looking and wholly fantastical worlds that allow players to experience a range of interactions. Doctors have begun utilizing VR as a “distraction therapy” tool to help their patients manage their pain and their fear of that pain. (2) Engineers now have access to “digital twins”, real-time virtual counterparts of physical objects or processes, which give them the ability to run multiple processes versus simulations’ single processes and with real-time, two-way information flow. Lastly, education can now happen outside the classroom. Students can go on field trips to places otherwise inaccessible or simply too dangerous, not to mention without the logistics of travel to actually feasible locations.
These are just a few of VR’s many uses now. But as we overcome current limitations, the divide between the “virtual” and the “real” will narrow. The ability of future devices to provide fully immersive experiences will help move VR from specialized uses and mainstream adoption. While the day when VR becomes ubiquitous in our lives may seem far fetched, think back to cellular phones. They evolved from cumbersome, single-use luxury items into the multifunctional pocket computers essential to daily activities today. Imagine trying to live without a cell phone now. VR is essentially on that same trajectory right now.
What is the essential VR device that we someday won’t be able to live without? While we can’t know the future, we can take lessons from other tech evolutions and societal trends to make well-educated guesses. VR, to be deemed essential, will have to demonstrate its utilitarian superiority. Even its shortcomings will outweigh the alternatives for communication, education, training, entertainment, and so on. To illustrate, VR could one day provide extremely high-fidelity, real-time two-way communication from just about anywhere in the world. Yes, we can do that with cell phones right now, but imagine it just like being in there in person? Students could attend class regardless of location or weather conditions (what’s a “snow day”?). Learning new job skills will be just as hands-on as the real thing but without the hazards. As for entertainment, the line between movies, television, and games could blur to the point that they bear little to no distinction as we will become characters in them all. In short, VR will have to converge to the degree that living without it will seem absurd. (I will again remind you of your cell phone, but to the nth degree).
These predictions may be strictly in the imagination, but that’s where all technologies began. To dismiss them would be naïve. The details of exactly when and how VR will become essential aren’t what is important, but rather, that it will one day be another one of life’s mundanities. Now, imagine that.
Sources
1. Global News Wire. “Virtual Reality (VR) Market to Reach USD 84.09 Billion by 2028; Acquisition of NextVR by Apple Inc. to Incite Business Development: Fortune.” Globalnewswire.com, 19 August 2021,globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/08/19/2283207/0/en/Virtual-Reality-VR-Market-to-Reach-USD-84-09-Billion-by-2028-Acquisition-of-NextVR-by-Apple-Inc-to-Incite-Business-Development-Fortune-Business-Insights.html.
2. Delzell, Emily. “Virtual Realty in Medicine.” WebMD, 31 May 2021, webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/virtual-reality-medicine.