China to account for 40% of VR shipments this year

Worldwide shipments of virtual reality (VR) headsets are expected to reach 6.3 million this year, with 40 per cent of the total shipped in China, according to Canalys.

The Chinese market is highly fragmented and vendors such as Huawei and DeePoon are moving quickly to form partnerships, said Canalys analyst Jason Low. “Local VR companies need to move fast before international vendors, such as HTC, Oculus and Sony, get a foothold.”

Canalys believes that although inexpensive, simple viewers appeal to many consumers, vendors must look beyond these to more advanced VR headsets, where the longer-term opportunity lies.

Low noted that there isn’t a clear leader for VR content in China. Local content providers, game publishers and service providers are racing to exercise their influence on the development of VR beyond hardware.

The research firm forecasts VR shipments more than doubling next year to 15 million units (see chart, click to enlarge) and hitting 45 million in 2019 and nearly 70 million in 2020.