Apple VR will significantly increase the average purchase price of VR headsets in 2023 (all manufacturers combined)

IDC has put its best analysts in “brainstorming” mode on VR. The conclusion of this big headache is quite clear: Meta’s choice to do VR low-cost is a losing strategy in terms of business model, even if it currently allows Meta to dominate the VR market (Meta would sell 90% of the 13 million VR headsets that will be sold this year). Fortunately, it seems that Meta has understood the problem and that the Cambria headset, which is much more expensive and premium than the Meta Quest 2, will primarily target a professional audience.

And Apple in all this? The Californian VR headset should land in January 2023, not far from the estimated launch for the PlayStation VR 2. For IDC again, Sony, Apple and Meta are destined to become the next leaders of the VR market, even if initially, Apple’s VR headset, which is much more expensive than the Meta Quest 2 (and 3 to come) and the PlayStation VR 2, will above all only target a fringe ofearly adopters. This “fringe” of buyers will all the same be substantial enough to suddenly increase the average purchase price of a VR headset in 2023 to around 440 dollars (see table above).

This average purchase price should then gradually drop until it reaches $410 by 2026, helped by Apple’s releases of less expensive VR/XR models.