From Apple and Microsoft to nReal and Niantic, Established Tech Giants and Risk-Taking New Comers are Pushing AR Innovation

ABI Research’s Hot Tech Innovators report identifies new and notable AR
form factor and use cases

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ARinnovation?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#ARinnovationlt;/agt;–ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic
guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies, examined
the current Augmented Reality market and identified a selection of the
most exciting and potentially impactful innovations and the companies
behind them.

“The past 12 months have brought about a quickening of announcements and
improvements on existing products across the entire augmented reality
market,” says Eric Abbruzzese, Research Director at ABI Research.
“Activity among major technology firms like Apple and Microsoft is
ongoing, as is grassroots innovation around new use cases, products, and
experiences. Major hardware announcements have been joined by exciting
new ventures in 5G, AI, retail, toys, gaming, and more, leading to a
richer yet more complex ecosystem.”

Both consumer and enterprise ecosystems are seeing a progression.
Enterprise-focused hardware players, such as RealWear and Microsoft,
continue to carve out their potential value for corporate endeavors
through high ROI use cases like remote expertise and training. These
enterprise endeavors need backends to help manage devices and visualize
collected data, which is where companies like Augmate and Virtualitics
come in. New hardware entrants like North and nReal are chasing the
ideal smart glasses form factor, which may not be specifically targeted
at consumers, but does meet form factor expectations for the space.
Others sit somewhere in between: Magic Leap is searching for their next
headline with telecom partnerships, Mira is taking a mobile VR like
approach to AR with a head-mounted phone housing, and Niantic (Pokémon
Go developers) is expanding their IP into 5G-enabled location-based
opportunities.

“Innovation is spread between companies small and large in AR currently,
which is unique,” concludes Abbruzzese. “Some of the biggest names in
tech are also the biggest names in AR. At the same time, grassroots
efforts to improve existing devices, use cases, and content are some of
the riskiest, yet most interesting endeavors for smaller companies.
Pushing hardware before a market is mature or pushing new functionality
to hardware that’s still rough around the edges is critical to moving a
market forward, and AR has seen, and will continue to see, plenty of
both.”

These findings are from ABI Research’s Hot
Tech Innovators: Augmented and Mixed Reality report. This report is
part of the company’s Augmented
and Virtual Reality research service, which includes research, data,
and Executive Foresights. Hot
Tech Innovators reports focus on companies at the forefront of
transformational innovation, particularly those that are younger and
less well-known than the incumbents, at the technological forefront of
their markets, developing new business models, destabilizing the current
market and prime acquisition targets.

About ABI Research

ABI Research provides strategic guidance for visionaries needing market
foresight on the most compelling transformative technologies, which
reshape workforces, identify holes in a market, create new business
models and drive new revenue streams. ABI’s own research visionaries
take stances early on those technologies, publishing groundbreaking
studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms. ABI
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Contacts

Global
Deborah Petrara
Tel: +1.516.624.2558
pr@abiresearch.com

Christopher
Leary
Tel: +1.516.624.2544
pr@abiresearch.com