I can't speak for FJ with regards to his opinion of how fast the market will accept it, but with regards to the size of the market, according to this article, http://optics.org/news/7/4/16, "global revenues currently stand at just under $800 million, but will swell to $2.1 billion in 2020."

The application landscape is currently dominated by deployments in short-range fiber-optic data transmission links, which account for nearly half of that total. But developments including better efficiency, longer-wavelength emission (most commercial VCSELs operate at around 800 nm) and tunability will see the applications market diversify.

"VCSELs have been widely adopted in the data communications industry," commented BCC analyst Sinha Gaurav. "The growth is attributed to increased demand for VCSELs with low-energy optical storage and fast switching in servers and high-capacity data centers.”

He also sees growing demand for VCSELs in ultra-high-density magnetic storage and – perhaps more surprising - industrial heating, including paint curing and commercial print shops.

“VCSELs should play an important role in gesture recognition and 3D sensing technology in consumer electronics goods,” adds BCC. “The continuous demand for gesture recognition technology in portable electronic devices is expected to lead to higher deployment of VCSELs in electronic devices.”

Diagnostic and therapeutic uses in medicine are also anticipated, for example in optical nerve stimulation and computed radiography imaging, with the superior electrical efficiency of VCSELs compared with LEDs set to expand their adoption in proximity-sensing applications.

Another key application area could appear in the emerging market for autonomous technologies, VCSEL arrays aimed at lidar equipment used for driver assistance and autonomous vehicle navigation.