The manufacturers of augmented reality (AR) devices began to pay less attention to the creation of consumer gadgets and focused on the development of AR-platforms - the basic solutions that will form the basis of numerous products. This was noticed by analysts Digitimes Research.

According to them, the change of strategy for vendors is associated with a drop in demand for virtual (VR) and augmented reality sets from consumers. In addition, wearable gadgets can not effectively immerse the user in computer reality, as a result of which this market has become less attractive to large players.

Google was the first to develop an AR-platform for headsets. It's called Tango. Then, to the American company, her compatriot, Microsoft, who now actively develops the integrated platform Windows Holographic.

In this direction also works Facebook, developing the platform of Camera Effects, which, according to the developers, should become the basis of a premium ecosystem, analysts say..

Finally, Apple is promoting the ARKit platform, which allows owners of all iOS-devices to use the capabilities of augmented reality without making hardware changes to their smartphones and tablets.

According to IDC analysts, the world market for supplemented and virtual reality equipment in the first quarter of 2017 reached 2.3 million devices. The largest producer of experts called Samsung Electronics, which in January-March 2017 released 489.5 thousand of these products, which corresponds to 21.5% of the total market. In second place is Sony with an 18.8-percent indicator and 429 thousand copies of the supplied PlayStation VR. The popularity of Sony helmets is promoted by a mature ecosystem and a large user base.

Samsung is in the lead thanks to the popularity of Gear VR glasses, which are used in conjunction with smartphones from the same manufacturer.

The top three in the market is closed by HTC, which for the first three months of this year prepared for the sale of 190.9 thousand Vive helmets. This is twice as much as the shipments of Oculus Rift devices developed by Facebook. The fifth place by the volume of supplies of VR- and AR-equipment is occupied by TCL (91,3 thousand units).