(1) The panel was unanimous that several millions of premium VR headsets will be sold in 2016 (that means excluding Google Cardboard); premium headsets from Oculus, Samsung, Sony, HTC, and others. That means that VR becomes a mass market opportunity in the very near-term -- i.e, next year.
(2) I cited research and consulting firm Digi-Capital's forecast of a total VR/AR market of $150 billion by 2020, the vast majority of which -- 80% -- is predicted, perhaps surprisingly, to be AR. And, the panel was unanimous -- agreeing that the ultimate market potential for AR will dwarf the VR market, because AR's semi-immersive (rather than fully-immersive) nature means that AR applications are much broader in scope.
(3) BUT, interestingly, all agreed that VR is far ahead of AR in terms of obvious mass consumer and business applications right now -- and, further, while many significant VR-focused companies are widely known, major AR market participants are less so (with Magic Leap and Microsoft leading the way ... and virtually no others widely known (in fact, the panel had difficulty identifying others)).
