19 Jun 2025 | Mike Boland

AWE Talks: XR Moves to the Mainstream

AWE USA 2025

See the summarized takeaways below, along with the full session video. Stay tuned for more video highlights each week and check out the full library of conference sessions on AWE’s YouTube Channel.

Speakers
Ori Inbar, CEO and Co-Founder of AWE

Key Takeaways & Analysis
– Looking at XR's recent history and momentum, it's no longer the future... it's the present. 
– Though XR veterans cringe at it always being around the corner, Inbar makes a strong case.
   – XR collectively is $30 billion today, including hardware, software, and supporting tech.
   – That’s about the size of the film industry, and growing faster than GDP
   – Mobile AR is at 35 percent penetration of US adults VR is at 27 percent.
   – A16Z says that XR is the most underrated tech market today. 
– But the best way to visualize it is to delineate device classes based on their adoption levels. 
– For example, mobile AR and VR are already mainstream, defined as 25-50% adoption.
– Following closely behind are emerging-popularity devices like non-display AI smart glasses.
   – The category leader, Ray Ban Metas, has already reached 2 million+ unit sales.
   – Mixed reality devices are also in this category, including Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro. 
– Following that are niche markets which are early but promising, such as Realwear and Vuzix.
– Then we have the early adoption category with full-featured AR glasses like Snap Specs. 
– Lastly, the prototype category contains the most futuristic hardware, including Meta Orion. 
– With all the above, there's a palpable inflection in optimism throughout the tech sector.
– And for all the above, AI will be a force multiplier in making XR smarter and more functional. 
  – Though there's a reductive hot take that AI steals XR's thunder, it will actually elevate it. 
   – It's true that AI sucks all the air (and funding) out of the room, but it will have net benefit. 
   – Among other things, it makes XR more capable and robust throughout the stack. 
   – For example, AI can be largely attributed for Ray-Ban Meta's breakout sales noted above. 
– But the kicker is that XR will help AI, as the latter runs out of online content to train its models. 
   – XR will provide a wealth of rich real-world data to fuel AI training for the coming years. 
– All of the above needs a rich ecosystem, at the heart of which is builders. 
   – Inbar is predicting 2025 will be the year of the XR master builder to catalyze the industry.
   – This trend was personified at AWE by the launch of the AWE Builder's Nexus.  
   – Look out for more in 2025 about the Builder's Nexus and all of the above.

For more color and depth, see the full panel discussion below... 




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