As business embraces augmented reality (AR), revenues from enterprise AR apps will reach $5.7 billion by 2021, rising tenfold from an estimated $515 million in 2016.
This is according to a Juniper research study titled Augmented Reality: Developer & Vendor Strategies 2016-2021,which found enterprise interest in AR technologies has continued to grow, fuelled by improvements in field of vision and latency on head-mounted displays (HMD).
Future releases of these units, such as Microsoft HoloLens, are set to drive AR content revenues in the enterprise sector as businesses opt for HMDs over smartphones and tablets, says Juniper.
However, the research reveals consumer app revenues from AR will remain below that of the enterprise sector through to 2021, despite the high visibility of games such as Pokémon GO.
Research author Sam Barker says: "The nostalgia of Pokémon has worn off for most users and there are reports about a drop in app usage among consumers. This means that the majority of consumer applications will only have limited revenue opportunity and are likely to have a short shelf-life akin to the current wider app ecosystem".
Juniper notes that enterprise AR revenues are set to remain on smartphone and tablet devices for the foreseeable future. However, enterprises' focus from manufacturers such Microsoft and Vuzix will see the largest revenue opportunity for content developers on HMDs from 2020.
International Data Corporation (IDC), forecasts worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality market will grow from $5.2 billion in 2016 to more than $162 billion in 2020. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 181.3% over the 2015-2020 forecast period.
"For many years augmented and virtual reality were the stuff of science fiction. Now with powerful smartphones powering inexpensive VR headsets, the consumer market is primed for new paid and user generated content-driven experiences. Recent developments in healthcare demonstrated the powerful impact augmented reality headsets can have at the industry level, and over the next five years we expect to see that promise become realised in other fields like education, logistics, and manufacturing," explains Chris Chute, vice president of Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC.
Garner predicts through 2021, businesses will see a rapid evolution of immersive content and applications that will range from consumer entertainment experiences to optimising complex work processes.
"Virtual reality and AR capabilities will merge with the digital mesh to form a more seamless system of devices capable of orchestrating a flow of information that comes to the user as hyper personalised and relevant apps and services. Integration across multiple mobile, wearable, IOT and sensor-rich environments (the digital mesh) will extend immersive applications beyond isolated and single-person experiences. Rooms and spaces will become active with things, and their connection through the mesh will appear and work in conjunction with immersive virtual worlds," says the research company.
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