14 DAY TRIAL // Augmented reality (AR) is one area that is expected to grow a lot during the following few years, a series of previous reports have showed already, and now Juniper Research provides a series of estimated figures for the area. According to the research firm, the number of mobile downloads that include augmented reality (AR) content is expected to see an impressive rise within the following few years, increasing from under 1 million in 2009 to more than 400 million by 2014.
The research firm's report on augmented reality also shows that the increasing number of application stores, which come both from OS vendors and wireless carriers, is one factor that will contribute to the take up of AR. At the same time, the growth will be fueled as well by the roll-out of new AR-enabling technology on smartphones, which will translate into a larger number of applications available for users. According to the firm, this will lead to an increase in both levels of adoption and service usage.
Additionally, the firm notes that most of the AR downloads will include location-based search apps, at least when it comes to the following five years. However, another successful category in the area will be games, which should account for around 30 percent of all downloads by 2014. One segment where AR will not enter too soon is the enterprise applications area, where solutions are not expected to arrive before 2012, mainly due to technological barriers.
“Pre-loading an AR browser, or indeed any kind of AR-enabled app, onto the handset, greatly reduces time-to-content or thereby offers the opportunity to increase user familiarity with AR in practice,” Dr Windsor Holden, the author of the report, mentions. The report further shows that a large number of vendors around the world will soon start pre-loading AR apps on their mobile phones.
The report also reveals that the “total annual revenues from AR-enabled apps will reach $732 million in 2014, up from less than $2 million in 2010,” and that “deployments of time-critical AR apps will be limited in the short term due to issues with GPS accuracy.” Moreover, Juniper Research notes that the report on mobile augmented reality is based on “interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organizations in this bleeding edge industry.” Additional details can be found on the firm's website.