Tech Startups Are Heroes of Augmented Reality
An opinion piece on IPWatchdog.com summarizes the key developments that have been taking place over the past three years in both the Virtual and Augmented Reality industries with a useful timeline graphic, integrating information about developments and investments from some of the key players.
The article gives useful information about investments, acquisitions, developments and patents in both Virtual and Augmented Reality, using research from Goldman Sachs published in January 2016, and reminding readers that the combined estimated market size of VR and AR could reach anywhere from $80B to $182B by 2025. The author notes that “it has become important to disambiguate VR from AR in order to clearly understand their individual pathways, future and inclination of the markets.” Not only is clear information presented on the key differences between VR and AR, but he goes on to describe the competitive landscape from the viewpoint of major players, startups and smaller players.
The author expressly mentions enterprises in which applications for Augmented Reality is expanding, noting how the developing technologies of 5G wireless broadband and IoT is going to support development and expansion of Augmented Reality into more applications in future.
Companies are measured as to their relative number of patent applications filed. Figure 6, as presented in the article, shows the Top 5 small players / startups in AR with respect to patent publications, of which AREA member DAQRI is included. Figure 7 shows the Top 5 AR startups with respect to market and acquisition potential: Atheer, another AREA member, is featured in this list.
