Goldman Sachs: VR and AR "Will Be The Next Generation Computing Platform" Worth $80 Billion By 2025 (roadtovr.com)

An anonymous reader writes: As consumer VR headsets from major players like Facebook, Sony, HTC and Valve head to the market this year, the mainstream consumer market is beginning to catch sight of the technology's potential. Prestigious investment bank Goldman Sachs calls augmented reality and virtual reality "the next generation computing platform" and forecasts an $80 billion market by 2025. "We think this technology has the potential to transform how we interact with almost every industry today, and we think it will be equally transformative both from a consumer and an enterprise perspective," says Heather Bellini, Business Unit Leader in Telecommunications, Media and Technology at Goldman Sachs. "At the end of the day we think VR and AR will be as transformation as the smartphone market."

Comments

nope

[ghinckley68]

VR is 3D going no where just a big money pit for wall street to collect cash in.

Re:nope

[saigon_from_europe]

VR is 3D going no where just a big money pit for wall street to collect cash in.

No, it will be huge market, like... 3D TV!

Re:nope

[Dutch Gun]

Heh, was just coming to say the same thing. VR is cool enough, but I think it's just too gimmicky to catch on as a mainstream thing. Maybe for console games it would work, since you can sit down and play relatively hands-free.

Honestly, I think augmented reality has a much better chance at going mainstream, eventually when it gets to the point that they can hide the electronics and projected viewports in normal-sized glasses reasonably cheaply - because you know they'll eventually get there. At that point, we have a chance at moving away from physical user interfaces. And consider how useful digital information overlaid on top of the real world could be in many situations. Think about how much better computer-based navigation would work with an actual heads-up display, and if you're walking, actual cues embedded in the real world.

And entertainment: How fun would it be to play a game of Star Wars-style holo battlechess with a friend? Thanks to the internet, you wouldn't even have to be in the same physical location. For kids: what about a ghost-hunting game that turns your own house into the playfield, or perhaps a laser-tag style wargame that takes place in the back yard? Computer games wouldn't have to exclude exercise.

Re:nope

[Dutch Gun]

Fashion is fickle. If augmented reality takes off, future fashion might dictate that eyewear is now the new cool/sexy, especially if it's built into nice-looking headgear that also functions as sunglasses when outdoors - lots of people don't mind wearing those. Agreed that it's a very big if, though.

Also, since when the hell do we listen to Goldman-Sachs as a purveyor of future tech trends? It's not like Wall Street is known for it's far-sightedness (no pun on corrective eyewear intended).

Re:nope

[ranton]

I don't think everyone's reasons are as shallow as fashion. I used to wear glasses but stopped because it was just a plain hassle for not much benefit.

Augmented reality will certainly fix the "not much benefit" part of your problem. I may not be able to see all of the benefits augmented reality will bring, but then again I thought smartphones were a silly luxury item in 2007. Augmented reality will just be this decades version of the smartphone when it comes to enhancing peoples' interface with technology.

Re: nope

[Bing Tsher E]

Overhead? Hillary was relatively cheap. Her payoff was less than the annual corporate budget for coffee.

Re:Unwanted Side Effects

[Mostly a lurker]

Actually, I can see VR/AR being used to enhance safety, similar to a kind of anti collision system in cars. When the user is not paying attention and running into danger as a result, a submodule could kick in that forces the user to focus on the threat.

"Prestigious investment bank Goldman Sachs"

[Anonymous Coward]

who calls scambags "prestigious" after 2008?

Re:"Prestigious investment bank Goldman Sachs"

[saigon_from_europe]

Investment bankers are worse than random at predicting even how stocks will change, so the subject of why any sensible person would actually listen to them predict future trends is an exercise in forensic pathology rather than any rational form of psychology.

Actually, there is a clear pattern. Those predictions are done by 20-something kids loaded with money (typical new hire in bank), with severely distorted view of reality. So they invest other people's money into what they consider cool. That's how we get some really strange market capitalizations. For example, Tesla is almost worth as VW (before emition scandal). VW is neck-to-neck with Toyota as #1 car produces in world, while Tesla did not make 100.000 cars in total (or something like that), and in their view, they are worth the same. No matter how much I'd like Tesla to succeed (I'm an electrical engineer with major in power engineering) and to become VW instead of VW, that's simply won't happen soon if ever. Uber is also worth amazing amount of money. Illegal taxi company that is nowhere near to make any profit, but very likely to be sued in every single jurisdiction it operates is worth 40B???? GoPro had a capitalization of 1B. WTF??? But from the point of cocain/adrenaline addict that runs your retirement fund, that's probably the coolest thing ever. And so on...

I believe it.

[some old guy]

By then real life will suck so much for the commoners that VR/AR will be the state-sanctioned escape and control mode.

Translation

[GrumpySteen]

"We invested in this technology before we realized it was the technological equivalent of putting retirement funds into Beanie Babies. Let's talk it up so that we can sell it all off to our technology-illiterate investor and let them take the loss when it all collapses."

Re:Why?

[Dunbal]

Because he's going to want to sell you a ridiculously priced stock in an IPO.

WTF

[wardrich86]

What the fuck does a bank know about VR, AR, and tech trends? They're eons behind on tech.. probably still running COBOL servers.