Growth slows but new post-pandemic opportunities emerge as revenue is projected to reach $1.2 billion by the end of 2025. 

San Francisco, CA, September 28, 2021 – As businesses pivot to an immersive-first strategy, immersive cameras will continue to play an ever greater, and even dominant, role. Given its central role in the future of immersive, Greenlight Insights anticipates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2025 of 12.5% for total immersive cameras hardware revenue, reaching $1.2 billion by 2023. 

“2021 marks a year of unique opportunities for immersive cameras,” said Clifton Dawson, Principal Analyst at Greenlight Insights. “If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that camera technology is arguably as essential as broadband access for the purposes of work, connection with loved ones, and creativity.”

Greenlight Insights' forecast looks at modular, monoscopic and stereoscopic standalone, cinematic array, and volumetric immersive cameras. These are defined as follows:

• Modular immersive cameras are those cameras that are paired with smartphones and attached via a data/power port. These cameras consist of two wide angle lenses to form the 360-degree sphere.
• Monoscopic standalone immersive cameras include one or more camera sensors and do not provide stereoscopic capability.
• Stereoscopic standalone immersive cameras include one or more paired camera sensors arranged side-by-side, allowing for capture of a three-dimensional image or video.
• Cinematic array immersive cameras are highly specialized discrete equipment, boasting many cameras on an integrated device.
• Cinematic array immersive cameras are highly specialized discrete equipment, boasting many cameras on an integrated device.
• Volumetric cameras bring six degrees of freedom of movement (6DoF) to 360-degree video, creating a 3D video able to be traversed and explored as if it were a digitally-rendered 3D environment.

Standalone immersive cameras for consumer use and some professional applications continues to be the largest, and fastest increasing, platform of growth for the immersive camera market. Combined spending on standalone immersive cameras – monoscopic and stereoscopic – will total $593 million in 2021 and will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 21% through 2025, reaching $1.14 billion.

The anticipated rapid growth in headsets for xR has also spurred a rise in adoption of spherical cameras in many applications, for both consumers and professionals. Demand for marketing and advertising in spherical video will continue to grow alongside market penetration of HMDs and AR-capable mobile devices. Likewise, continued support for immersive video formats from major social media platforms like Facebook will reduce barriers for content creation.

“The immersive camera market is responding accordingly, and in spite of ongoing consolidation, established major players such as Insta360 continue to refine and perfect their product lines to offer new features like AI-powered post-processing at increasingly attractive price points,” Dawson added.

The Greenlight Insights report 2021 Immersive Camera Market Report is available now. Current clients may visit the Greenlight Insights’ website at www.greenlightinsights.com or email hello@greenlightinsights.com to order the report.

About Greenlight Insights

Greenlight Insights delivers critical strategic insights to the world's leading hardware makers, publishers, developers, service providers, institutional investors, trade associations, and government entities. 

Greenlight Insights provides proprietary and syndicated research, as well as consulting services. Based in San Francisco, Greenlight Insights comprises a diverse team of experienced industry professionals who offer deep expertise in xR markets.