In 2018, augmented reality grew to new heights. Business support for AR is expected to be solid in 2019, with huge tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google all committing significant resources. As of May 2019, the number of smartphones that can utilize AR apps has risen to 1.5 billion.
In 2019, Apple launched ARKit 3.0 and Google’s ARCore is gaining traction
Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore development units (SDKs) were revealed in 2017, institutionalizing the progress tools and democratizing portable AR app creation, resulting in more than a two-fold increase in versatile AR-enabled devices and a significant boost in active users during the past 1.5 years.
In terms of innovation, the presented breakthroughs put versatile AR in the same league as headset-based AR, if not above it. Regardless, we can see that ARKit has a significant lead over ARCore.
Augmented reality is a novel approach for purchasing that will be more widely adopted in the future.
According to Gartner, over 100 million consumers will use AR-enabled shopping technologies in 2019, which is one of this year’s most popular retail trends. Mobile devices that utilize AR have attracted a large number of developers, merchants, and customers. They are now utilized as part of their regular routine by developers, stores, and customers.
According to a BRP study, 48 percent of customers would be more inclined to buy from a business that provided AR experiences. Only 15% of businesses currently offer AR experiences. Over the next three years, only a further 32% of firms plan to utilize virtual or augmented reality app creation services.
AR for navigation applications
One of the most visible applications for augmented reality technologies is indoor navigation, and 2019 is predicted to be the year when the average consumer gets his or her first genuine taste of it. People rely heavily on Google and Apple’s map services outside, but inside navigation has the potential to amaze consumers.
AR-powered business solutions
Consumers are still a few years away from having access to consumer-grade smart glasses. Military, medical, and corporate solutions, on the other hand, are already demonstrating the value of combining AR with headsets and smart glasses.
The main current challenges to AR are battery life and size. In February 2019, Microsoft HoloLens 2 was announced, which is likely to be the most anticipated device in this area in 2019. The company aims to release its technology with much fanfare by demonstrating increases in raw processing power, battery life, and wearability.
Artificial Intelligence is being used to create mixed reality experiences that are better than before.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are two fast-growing areas of tech. Bringing them together with Augmented and Mixed Reality technologies is a natural progression of many of the tasks that are ideal for AI and ML, especially computer vision. The capacity to develop human-machine procedures that tackle issues such as disease diagnosis is also extremely promising.
Amazon’s product recommendation engine has a 35% market share on Amazon, which leverages data science and machine learning to provide search results and match advertisers with customers. Moving away from the web browser and into the physical world promises enormous commercial potential.
