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5 Augmented Reality Trends

Here are 5 augmented reality trends that suggest the long term future of this emerging technology:

1. The AR market will grow fast.

Out of that $150 billion, AR will make up $120 billion of the market share. Considering that AR is just barely getting started in 2016, that means the next three years will be marked by explosive growth for the AR industry.

2. AR will primarily be mobile at first.

The publicized image of VR technology is the now classic image of a person with a face-masking technology nearly the size of their head, and many think of AR in a similar way. AR headsets are being developed, such as the Microsoft Hololens, but AR’s biggest market will be with mobile devices. One reason for this mobile-first market is that AR is already smartphone-compatible, meaning that users don’t have to buy new hardware to engage with the technology. Secondly, it’s a matter of convenience: consumers pull out their phone, turn on the camera, and get more information about the world around them by moving their phone through space. Whether it’s Google Tango or the iPhone 7’s dual cameras (which many point to being a precursor for future AR usage), mobile AR is already on its way, and for most cases, mobile AR is all that consumers need to fulfill their needs.

3. AR will change the face of marketing.

Part of the reason mobile AR will be so successful is because AR marketing depends on smartphones. Picture a world in which a logo designer’s work isn’t just on a billboard or a website; it could be digital graffiti anywhere in the world, giving brands greater exposure to their audience than ever before.

4. Enterprises will love AR.

There are numerous benefits for businesses using AR. These include service or maintenance professionals getting fed information about their work as they handle tasks, increased information flow between offices, and streamlined operations. AR could be used to augment meetings: during presentations, members could pull up additional information to lay over the documents as needed. There’s no doubt that AR will be popular among consumers, but it’s AR’s value in the business world that will make the technology so successful.

5. AR won’t be controlled by platforms.

Smartphones today are controlled by a handful of tech enterprises (Apple, Samsung, and Google), and the same will be true for VR technology, which is much more dependent on hardware than AR tech is. While AR will have its large platforms, including the Microsoft Hololens, Google Tango, and Magic Leap, there are also open source toolkits, such as the ARToolKit, to help developers build their own AR apps. This creates flexibility and innovation within AR and allows small businesses and even consumers to experiment with AR at a lower cost if they so choose.

See the full post here: http://www.datamation.com/applications/5-augmented-reality-trends.html