Augmented Reality for the Industrial Enterprise

Chapter 4. Your Best Strategy for AR Growth

AR for Enterprise: What Else Is Happening

We’ve looked at why now is the right time for industrial enterprise AR. And, as we’ve discussed, many of the people building AR are using the technology for heavy industrial work, training, and manufacturing. However, there are other categories of business that represent the future of where enterprise AR is headed. This chapter explores how else it can be used, and what you should know about as you plan your strategy for AR development.

According to the investment bankers at Goldman Sachs, VR and AR technologies will generate $80 billion in revenue by 2025, $35 billion of that from software. We’ve already discussed the fact that VR and AR are separate categories—and are now ready to be separated in all ways, including financial projections. We’ve also looked at professional sectors like healthcare—projected at $5.1 billion—followed by engineering ($4.7 billion). But what about the other areas?

I dug deep to find great examples across industry. And what I found? There’s a lot of hype.

First, there are a lot of use cases out without a clear reason for being. In 2016, we saw:

• Augmented reality car showrooms that are somewhat useful—but still a stretch

• Lowes and Walgreens are making attempts that are closer

• Hyundai cars with new augmented reality owners manuals

This is a challenging space. And these companies are trying. What’s still missing is the use case that makes retail AR deeply valuable. ...