2024: XR Winter done and AI collision

Hi all, hope everyone had a great end of year and managed to take a well deserved break, with some purposeful time-off. Heading into 2024 I wanted to share two of my XR predictions for the year.

XR: extended reality. A catch-all term for VR,AR,MR, Spatial Computing

Hardware sales back on track

For my readers that are not keeping up with the XR market, 2023 was not a great year for hardware sales, taking inspiration from the crypto market, we went into an XR 'Winter' period. According to the latest report from market research firm Counterpoint Research, shipments in this market fell sharply by 56% year-on-year.

That being said, I believe this happened due a series of factors such as: a shift in attention into Gen AI, customers expecting new headset innovation and enterprise customers shifting away from innovation investment to increase their cash runway due to economic uncertainty.

Why do I think 2024 will deliver a bounce back to the XR Hardware market?
New devices entering the market from titans of the industry, Apple and Samsung & Google (reportedly a collab) . Even if the Vision Pro doesn't sell many units due to a short in supply and the high price tag, Apple signaled the market that they believe this is where the future is going, which means that VCs, Founders, customers and enterprise will be looking to return into the XR Hype train.

Tim Cook is quite confident that XR will be the next game changer and has put it in the same level as the internet, smartphones and AI.

In a BBC podcast, Dua Lipa asks Tim Cook which next product or technology will be as transformative as the smart phone, the internet, and now AI. Cook thinks it will be the Apple Vision Pro headset which overlays virtual worlds on our physical surroundings (augmented reality).

He talks about its potential to revolutionize how we interact with information, particularly by enabling us to visually reference and display content in real-time during conversations.

Watch the full interview here <---

In Addition to this, Quest headsets have performed well at the end of 23', beating many popular items during Black Friday and being well received in Christmas, this should carry-on in 2024.

More from Meta, the rumors point to another device release at the end of the year, a device that apparently will have the Quest 2 price point.

Quest 3 Lite <------

Other companies such as Immersed and Pico will be launching devices that promise to be innovative.

GenAI and XR crossing paths

You would need to be living under a rock to not see the impact from GenAI in 2023, it got everyone wondering which of their responsibilities could end up being replaced by an AI model. Definitely the area of tech that picked up the most traction this year (deservedly), I see no reason for it to slow down in 2024, as the investments poured into this area last year will start showing results, and hopefully leading to new products landing in the market.

It is no secret that I believe XR and GenAI are on a collision path (positively). Users have mostly moved away from consuming content through text only, the majority of content consumed is in the form of images, videos or games. Why would this be different for GenAI?

Need to practice for an interview? Go into an XR application such as VirtualSpeech to practice and get instant feedback on your interviewing skills by interacting with a GenAI-enabled NPC.

Going further into the future, imagine being able to create whole 3D worlds by prompting using your voice?

There are already a number of creators that are creating fantastic experiences by combining both areas of tech, I expect this to be amplified in 2024, especially with Mixed Reality gaining a spotlight.

See you next week,
Davi, MetaVisions