3D & 4D Technology Market Expected to be Worth $314 Billion by 2022

April 26, 2016 by Scott J Grunewald 3D Printing 3D Scanning 3D Software Business Virtual Reality

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While most of us are still sitting around waiting for Virtual Reality technology to happen, it already seems to be having an impact on the business world. Just about every major tech company in the world is releasing, getting ready to release or developing VR headset devices, and there are already a host of companies looking to adapt the technology to an incredibly wide range of applications. From virtual reality business meetings, virtual reality video games, virtual reality social media and virtual reality pornography, just about everyone is acting like VR and 3D tech is the future, and at this point it is starting to look inevitable.

According to global market research company MarketsandMarkets, advanced 3D and 4D technology, like virtual reality, 3D printing, 3D imaging and CAD software, is going to drive the 3D & 4D Technology Market to reach an expected $314.17 Billion by the year 2022. That would be an incredible compound annual growth rate of nearly 17% from 2016 to 2022. There is a multitude of industries and sectors that would be contributing to this market expansion, including the entertainment & animation industry, CAD-based additive manufacturing, the growing custom parts and products market and military & defense. While the largest market for 3D and 4D technology is currently North America, the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) will see the fastest market growth.

The worldwide 3D and 4D technology market. [Image courtesy MarketandMarkets.]

The APAC region is currently the fastest-growing market for 3D technology, and that is unlikely to change given their current growth rate and the growing market potential for future 3D applications. While the entire region is expected to see a spike in demand, the primary markets that MarketsandMarkets expects to see the fastest growth will be in China, India and to a lesser degree Japan. The region’s demand for 3D technology applications will be driven by rising income levels in the APAC region, lifestyle changes as more people move to cities, and a growing need to remain competitive in the global market by developing faster manufacturing technology.

Virtual reality headset.

Demand from the entertainment industry will play a major role in the development of new consumer 3D technology due to the expected growing interest in applications like 3D cinema and 3D animation. The technologies that will show the fastest growth through 2022 within the 3D & 4D Technology market are 3D scanners, 3D sensors, 3D cameras and 3D imaging. Obviously virtual reality and 3D entertainment will be one of the main reasons the 3D input device market is expanding so rapidly, but the industrial manufacturing sector will also be driving a lot of this growth. As manufacturing races to become more automated, and 3D printers become more common within industrial workflows, there is a growing need for faster and higher quality inspection and validation technologies.

The defense sector is also expected to heavily influence the 3D market growth as they begin applying advanced 3D imaging technology to new, military applications. Head-mounted displays (HMD) are expected to be widely adopted for military use, including technology that can be used to track and identify the location and movements of enemy combatants. HMD technology will also have applications for differentiating between friendly and unfriendly participants in active war zones, and for use in autonomous or self-navigating military vehicles. MarketsandMarkets expects the military to heavily use technologies like 3D navigation systems, 3D multi displays, 3D radar systems, and virtual reality applications. The high-resolution imaging capabilities of 3D radar systems will also prove useful for applications like landmine detection and weapons and explosives identification.

Advanced military head-mounted displays.

All of this market research is collected in a new MarketsandMarkets report called “3D & 4D Technology Market by Technology (3D Cameras, 3D Scanners, 3D Sensors, Head-Mounted Display, 3D Smartphone, 3D Glasses, 3D Projectors, and 3D Printers, 3D Gaming, 3D Cinema, 3D Navigation, 3D Animation, 3D Motion Capture, 3D Metrology, 3D Gesture Recognition and 4D Printing), and Region – Global Forecast to 2022”. What are your thoughts on these financial figures for the future? Discuss in the 3D & 4D Industries Projected to be at $314 Billion by 2022 forum over at 3DPB.com.