A look into the VR and AR markets, and what it means for OLED microdisplay makers

One of our recent articles covered the OLED microdisplay industry, showing how there is an excess of capacity today, following the construction of several mass-scale production lines, mostly in China.

These new fabs were built on the promise of the AR and VR industries, hoping that the emergence of these solutions will open up a market for tens of millions of displays per year. In this new article, we look at the future of VR and AR headsets, and try to understand the real market potential for OLED displays.

• Defining AR and VR
• The current status and future of VR devices
• The role of OLED microdisplays in VR
• The future market of VR OLEDs
• AR headsets: from bird-bath video glasses to waveguide-based AI+AR information glasses
• Is there a market for OLEDs in future AR solutions?

Defining AR and VR

There's much confusion today, as there are many terms used to describe display-powered headsets - VR, AR, MR, XR. Some of these terms are a bit fuzzy, and as usually happens, companies are not consistent in their use.

To make things simple, we will simply use two terms. VR, or Virtual Reality, headsets are ones that completely block external light from reaching the eye. Your view is completely provided by the displays themselves. Some VR headsets use cameras to display the external world, or parts of it - but we still consider these to be VR headsets.