Tim O’Reilly is an author, founder of O’Reilly Media and one of the great thinkers of the digital era. He popularized the terms “open source” and “Web 2.0.” In a post on the Medium.com blog, O’Reilly suggests that Augmented Reality is a “unicorn technology” and that it will have a profound effect on the way people live and work.

In the hip circles such as those in which O’Reilly lives and writes, a unicorn is a label given to a technology breakthrough, once remarkable, that becomes taken for granted. He gives Google Maps, Google Now and Siri as other examples of unicorn technologies. O’Reilly then attributes the potential impact of Augmented Reality on how powerfully it can change the way people work.

O’Reilly goes on to predict that Augmented Reality will transform the way many services are provided. The topic of Augmented Reality’s impact on society and industry is one that will be featured at the upcoming Next Economy Summit, an O’Reilly event.

ABI Research issued a press release about its new market research report focusing on head Mounted Displays (HMD) sales. According to the report, approximately 65 M units will be sold in 2020, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 88%.

ABI’s primary analyst, Eric Abbruzzese, suggests in the release that systems which leverage existing mobile devices, such as smart phones, will be more popular than the “tethered” displays which are receiving most of the attention in media and gaming market today. Revenues for the mobile-reliant form of hardware could reach $1.6 Billion but still be less than 50% of the units sold.

The ABI forecast for Augmented Reality-enabled smart glasses is bullish. Enterprises seeking productivity gains are expected to be the primary buyers for at least the next few years, and to contribute 48% of total Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality HMD hardware revenues in 2020.

Investors should become increasingly active in order to get in on the anticipated growth in demand.

OPS Solutions, Augmented Reality technology provider and integrator of Light Guide Systems, is prominently featured in a post written by Sarah Webster, the editor in chief of the Manufacturing Engineering web site, to promote the maturity of Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Webster’s timely feature, which is republished by the Huffington Post, is also designed to raise awareness about October 2, 2015, designated as Manufacturing Day.

The recognition that Augmented Reality is a useful way to help humans interface with the sophisticated machines around them in an important manufacturing industry publication indicates that manufacturing leaders are no longer shy about connecting their digital content and physical world processes.

Webster goes on to point out that the American government is undertaking a major initiative to accelerate adoption of the latest information technology trends, including Augmented Reality, in its manufacturing industry.

As this market research report published by Deutsche Bank documents, German industrial companies were very early to identify, test and introduce Augmented Reality. The report’s author, analyst Stefan Heng, describes how this competitive advantage, as measured through the strength of Metaio and other companies, has been supported or perhaps fueled by the large body of applied and theoretical academic research that has been conducted and published by German universities over the past decade.

But what does the future hold for German industry with respect to the breakthroughs AR may offer?

The analyst raises questions and expresses concerns about the increasing risk of German companies getting complacent and losing their leading edge in this domain in the near future. He points out that in America and the Far East people are generally more open to trying new user experiences and changing their procedures to get ahead. He concludes that it may not be too late to increase the impacts of AR on the German economy. For example, if the technologies can be embedded into a greater number of specific industrial processes that save resources and accelerate time to market, the high German investment in research could be recouped in coming years.

Creating an entirely new user interface and experience is a big investment. And it takes more than a year to complete. In remarks made during DreamForce, the SalesForce annual event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggested it will be at least five years before consumers are able to benefit from HoloLens, the company’s first hands-free display.

In this post on VentureBeat, the Microsoft CEO’s remarks at DreamForce were analyzed and suggest that virtual reality will be reaching mainstream in advance of Augmented Reality smart glasses such as HoloLens, but that Microsoft’s HoloLens developer-focused program is ramping up and likely to launch in 2016.

According to analysts, the “developer and enterprise scenarios” is where Microsoft will test out the current generation of hardware. Enterprise developers will probably have a program similar to that offered by Google, also known as the Glass at Work developer program. Entry into the Microsoft HoloLens program will probably include both strong understanding of the use cases and a financial commitment.

Where technologies can reduce risk to human life and increase the likelihood of favorable conflict resolution, the return on investment equation is more likely to tip in favor of more investment, even if the technologies in which governments invest are not mature. That’s the primary reason that the defense sector has long been investing in Virtual Reality and, more recently, in Augmented Reality as well.

One of the people studying use of VR and AR in military use cases is Dr. Bob Stone at the University of Birmingham. Stone heads the Human Interface Technologies Lab.

A number of interesting projects are summarized in this post on Motherboard Blog (Vice.com). One of the concepts that builds upon Augmented Reality is the “Wearable Cockpit,” a user interface that allows soldiers to adapt more quickly to their environment. Based on personal preference and mission objectives, pilots reconfigure displays and controls. Stone’s lab is partnering with commercial companies that serve defense customers such as BAE Systems, a company that has been developing smart glasses for military customers for decades.

Research about driver distraction as a result of Augmented Reality in windshields compiled by the New York Times earlier in 2015 has been fueling a public debate about the benefits of using the technology to present information. The technology package, which has been introduced in the latest models of Lexus, BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes and Audi, among others, is proposed to make driving safer by reducing drivers’ need to look down for information. One of the use cases is the appearance of red arrows on the road when the driver departs from their designated lane. Algorithms that include motion detection and infrared vision could also alert drivers to roadside hazards. Jaguar’s heads-up display technology, for example, notifies the driver if a nearby pedestrian could be at risk of being hit.

In the latest feature story on the topic to be published by the media giant, the author points out that despite concerns expressed by opponents of the technology, safety trade organizations and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which could publish guidelines in the future, are only beginning to research the issues.

While these groups and agencies are exploring the possibility of performing studies, Continental AG, which supplies head-up display components for automakers including BMW, Renault and Mercedes, has been conducting extensive research on driver distraction and designing interfaces to optimize benefits while reducing risk. According to spokespeople interviewed for the article, the technology will be included in 2017 models but not widely promoted as a competitive advantage.

Many business leaders are beginning to detect patterns in their operations that can be traced to the introduction of the Internet of Things and IoT-enabled systems, “smart connected products.” But few leaders have gotten as far as Michael E. Porter, faculty member at Harvard Business School, and James E. Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC, in eloquently conveying their thoughts about the necessary ingredients and the steps that could be taken to accelerate the trends that ultimately can transform a company.

In a follow up to their first article on the topic of smart, connected products published in Harvard Business Review in the fall of 2014, the authors describe how smart connected products can transform processes and people in modern companies, and by extension, their industries and markets.

The analyses shared in the article published in the October 2015 issue of Harvard Business Review provide enormous insights into the opportunities as well as the obstacles found on the new frontier of smart connected products. They also offer value for those who are planning or already introducing Augmented Reality as a complementary technology to IoT and connected products.

The authors conclude that across all industries that could be impacted by smart connected products, manufacturers are on the bleeding edge, leading the charge to change how business is done.

In July we partnered with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the IEEE Standards Association, Sponsor members of the AREA, to conduct the first AR in Leading Edge Utilities event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A post on the IEEE Standards Association blog summarizes the results of the two-day event. “Safety issues were the dominant theme, consistent with the high priority on safety emphasized by utilities,” reports Rudi Schubert, new technology initiatives director and the author of this post. The utilities industry representatives said they want Augmented Reality solutions to be demonstrated as enhancing worker safety, not introducing distractions that can lead to unsafe situations.

Hardware communications and security were also key issues influencing utility purchasing decisions. A need for compatibility with existing infrastructure and an ability to use existing digital asset information will be drivers in assuring that AR solutions provide an acceptable return on investment.

Despite enthusiastic reports of success stories, there are significant obstacles to introducing any new technology.

On the AREA website the opportunities to change workplace performance is strongly documented. There’s also a commitment to approach challenges with open eyes. We applaud others who take the time to examine both sides of every new technology.

In this post on the NTT Data blog, Shamlan Siddiqi balances a previous post about wearables in energy and oil and gas industries with a careful examination of potential barriers to their adoption. He cites issues with inconsistent and intermittent usage, insufficient security and safety, limited feature sets and lack of maturity.

He concludes that the opportunities need to approached cautiously and introductions, where and when planned correctly will be phased and reuse popular consumer devices where possible.