Smart AR glasses shipments to rise significantly in 2023

Summer Kuo, DIGITIMES Research:

In 2020, the shipment growth driver for AR/VR wearables will be smart AR glasses, which will serve as a peripheral and a second smartphone screen. The wearable will also be integrated with the functionality of Bluetooth earphones.

Since the devices’ AR functionality will still be limited in 2020, the costs are unlikely to be too high and should put their prices in a rather consumer friendly zone, which is expected to expand their popularity among users.

Many telecom carriers have begun forming partnerships with AR/VR wearable firms recently and Digitimes Research expects the trend to grow stronger in 2020 as more business opportunities will emerge, making AR/VR applications a crucial part of the telecommunication market in the next few years.

With 5G commercialization expected to completely take off by 2023, full-function smart AR glasses will pose a strong challenge to smartphones.

MacDailyNews Take: Driven by Apple.

Augmented Reality won’t hit its stride until we’re freed from having to hold up glass slabs in order to experience it. Once AR graduates to mainstream smart eyewear from Apple, the killer AR apps will come in a deluge – and Android phones will become even less desirable as they already don’t work with Apple Watch, Apple Arcade, Apple Messages, etc. Soon Android phones will become outcasts from the Apple Glasses revolution, too, leading to iPhone becoming even more coveted by the hoi polloi!

AR, which seems like a gimmick today, will become very, very important sooner than later. — MacDailyNews, October 21, 2019

Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we’ll look back at holding up slabs of metal and glass to access AR as unbelievably quaint. — MacDailyNews, July 28, 2017

Augmented Reality is going to change everything. — MacDailyNews, July 21, 2017