Top 3 Reasons Preventing Developers From Doing AR/VR Today
Introduction
Since nearly 6 months ago we did R&D with the AR/VR technologies to see if/what Progress Software can do in this space. It turned that the potential of the market is huge, it is forecast to reach some 215 billion USD by 2021 and we can add a lot of our existing expertise into this space. You can read more about our findings in this story.
We setup a small team and started building our first deliverable — a fully functional demo application built with Unity3D and targeting the Microsoft HoloLens device. We successfully accomplished our initial milestone — to have the demo ready for the Microsoft Build 2018 conference.
What We Learned
Our goal with the launch of the sample application was to showcase an example of AR in today’s world and hear how people feel about doing AR/VR development.
I also attended the Progress NEXT 2018 conference where I had the chance to talk to many clients, partners and colleagues about AR/VR.
The bottom line of my observations is that people are excited by AR/VR but very few of them actually do or are willing to do anything in this space. However, most of them believe that it is inevitable for this technology to become mainstream at some point in the near future. Which was not surprising to us and we expected that. According to the Chasm Theory, we are still in the “Innovators” phase of the technology adoption, meaning that still only a small portion of people (the innovators ~2.5%), are actively looking into it:
When asked what’s the one thing that prevents them from doing some experiments today, most of the people outlined the following 3 reasons:
“I have no business requirement to do such apps”
Indeed, this sounds like a very simple and yet solid reason for not doing AR/VR today. The Business is simply not there, the technology is emerging and most of the problems today are solved with conventional technologies. Early investments in emerging technology imply higher risk and most of the companies would be reluctant to risk more than necessary.
“I see no value in AR/VR for solving my problems”
Many people simply don’t see the value that AR/VR can add in solving multiple problems or user experiences. And that’s fair. Most, if not all, of the problems today can be solved with existing mature technologies, which is “good enough” for most of the businesses. The “Innovators” group is only around 2.5% of the population, right?
“HoloLens device is pretty expensive”
Interestingly enough, many people thought that the only way to do AR for business is through the Microsoft HoloLens device. This assumption probably came by the fact that we were showcasing our demo application through HoloLens. But yes, a $3000 investment per single device requires а really good validation about the added value of the technology in solving a particular problem.
Our Recommendation
The above three reasons are valid, reasonable and solid ones. Still, it is our belief that we can completely understand a technology and its strengths only if we do some practical experiments and deep dive into its internals. As Morpheus said in my favorite movie:
Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
I, personally, was also a skeptic at the very beginning, when we started our internal conversations. I thought that AR/VR is all about gaming and entertainment and our company should not go into this space, but, as you may tell, I was proven wrong.
So — do some experiments!
It would be really hard to understand the space if you don’t get your hands dirty first. Regardless if you’ve been coding for half of your life or recently started on your first job as a developer, you know that results only come with actual work. That being said, if you are a C# developer or have good understanding of the language, a good starting point for you could be our demo application — we provide a download package with the complete source code. The HoloLens device is expensive but you can use Unity3D built-in emulator or the HoloLens emulator that comes with the development tools. Besides, if you step on Unity3D for AR/VR development, you can export to virtually any device that exists today. HoloLens is not the only device option, in fact it is the most expensive one and is specifically positioned to target enterprise verticals.
Once you know the technology in better detail you can spot some opportunities in solving existing problems more efficiently through AR/VR. I was literally surprised to find how many use cases exist, even today, that can be better solved through AR/VR than with conventional technologies.
I am very curious to hear what you think on the subject and what are your expectations of the potential of this market, so feel free to post them as comments below or drop me a line via Twitter.
Thanks and good luck!
