The market research firm Tractica estimates that 12 million units of “smart augmented reality glasses” will ship in the next five years.
The company counts everything from Google Glass to Oculus Rift and Magic Leap, so they don’t seem to be making much of a distinction based on use case. Nonetheless, Tractica estimates that 114,000 units of AR glasses will ship this year, with annual shipments growing to 5.4 million annually by 2020.
Vuzix, Epson, Sony, Meta, Atheer Labs, DAQRI, and Recon Instruments were named as innovators in the space. Note that most of those are active in the enterprise market, not consumer products.