The Future of Augmented Reality — What to Expect This Year & in 2020
The year in augmented reality 2019 started with the kind of doom and gloom that usually signals the end of something. Driven in large part by the story we broke in January about the fall of Meta, along with similar flameouts by ODG and Blippar, the virtual shrapnel of AR ventures that took a wrong turn has already marred the landscape of 2019.
And while layoffs across various industries, as well as a generally uncertain economic outlook, have frayed the nerves of tech analysts and startups alike, I have an alternative view of what we’ve seen in the first few months of the new year.
Like many emerging industries before it, AR is in the midst of a correction. And, sooner than some think, this correction will lead to the AR reality many have envisioned in years past.
Those who were just a little too early and ran out of fuel have nevertheless seen their initial dreams validated, and will try again. Some who toiled in the skunkworks of larger AR ventures and began to see daylight are launching their own AR ambitions. And players who could afford to spend many millions to experiment with AR are finally realizing where their focus should lie are redirecting their resources to focus in on the foundations of their role in next phase of computing.
