AR and VR Spending Will Continue to Grow in 2018

Colleges and universities have begun to find innovative uses for virtual and augmented reality, from training to recruitment. These investments are likely to continue to grow in the future.

A new report from IDC forecasts that AR and VR spending will grow from $9.1 billion in 2017 to $17.8 billion next year, Campus Technology reports.

All commercial sectors combined will account for 60 percent of spending in 2018, and the IDC report indicates that it will grow to more than 85 percent of spending by 2021.

While VR spending will likely be hardware, AR will largely be software with companies focusing on creating phone-based AR experiences.

"There are a lot of opportunities here to develop commercial-grade hardware and application that meet the needs of these industries," says Marcus Torchia, research director of IDC Customer Insights & Analysis, in the Campus Technology article.