Augmented reality is not only an exciting new technology, but a business opportunity with numerous applications. Beyond the world of gaming and the movie industry, augmented reality is poised to become a thriving stand-alone industry. Top business consultancy companies and statistics institutions share their positive outlook on the future of augmented reality in their most recent reports.
We looked over these reports and selected some of the most important statistics concerning augmented reality:
At the time of publishing, 1881 Startups on Angelist are listed under augmented reality.
Augmented reality startups are becoming more and more popular among angel investors and large corporations looking for interesting acquisitions and takeovers. For instance, Facebook acquired Oculus for $400 million in cash plus $1.6 billion in shares, although the company had not even launched a MVP.
By 2022, the number of mobile augmented reality monthly users could reach 2 billion.
According to research and consulting company Tractica, this growth will be justified mainly by the increasingly advanced and affordable software development kits (SDKs) allowing more developers to include augmented reality in their apps.
75% of the forecast augmented reality revenues will originate from equipment sales, advertising and ecommerce.
This revenue model suggests that AR mobile apps will focus on an ad-based monetization model, rather than premium subscriptions. As the technology becomes more widespread, sales of headsets and smart glasses will increase as well.
By 2021 augmented reality devices may be a business worth nearly $50 billion.
The forecast report prepared by Statista indicates that global revenues from this business may reach $48.7 billion, more than double compared to virtual reality. However, VR equipment will represent more than double the number of AR units sold at a global level.
Between 60% and 70% of the Americans interviewed in a ISACA survey understand the benefits of augmented reality and IoT devices for their daily lives.
The key areas where augmented reality can improve life are:
- education (according to 69%)
- healthcare (according to 62%)
- shopping (according to 66%)
$542 million is the largest funding obtained by an augmented reality startup so far.
Magic Leap managed to obtain this funding in 2014, the top contributors being Google, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
By the end of this year, AR smart glasses sales will reach $1.2 billion.
The driving force behind these sales are various industries, which use AR as a part of their work, especially in automobile design and logistics.
The AR software market is expected to reach $35.22 Billion by 2022.
Various web and mobile app will enrich the world of education, healthcare, and entertainment. While some of them will offer in-app purchases, others may apply the freemium monetization model.
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