Only in the first two months of 2016, virtual and augmented reality attracted 1.1 billion dollars in investments (997 million euro). That means the record, set in 2015, has already been broken, as ‘only’ 686 million dollars (622 million euro) was invested.
Investments keep going
One single company managed to attract a huge part of that sum (794 million dollars), namely American company Magic Leap which specializes in augmented reality headsets. Even excluding Magic Leap, investments grew 20-fold in the first two months of 2016 compared to 2015’s fourth quarter according to Digi-Capital numbers.
The company feels this will not be the end of the line however. The advice agency forecasts 2020 investments to reach 120 billion dollars (109 billion euro), according to Venturebeat. It remains to be seen whether the general public will fall for virtual reality. Despite the fact that more than 5 million cheap Google VR goggles have been sold, the new technologies will be very expensive by comparison. An Oculus headset will cost 799 euro, while an HTC Vive will cost 899 euro.
