The idea of the piece is that Combier hacks the Hype Cycle, observing at each point that very early on, much like the technology’s journey through the Hype Cycle, the customer themself goes through a similar cycle as well. The piece follows the customer journey through the technology trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment and plateau of productivity.

The Hype Cycle

1. Technology trigger

This is the initial phase of any rising technology where the concepts and ideas related to technology take place. No products are launched in the market, and the management is keen on people’s interest.

Following our customer journey metaphor, no attempt to use the technology has happened yet.

2. The peak of inflated expectations

In the second stage, the technology is implemented in the market and a lot of publicity happens on both successful and unsuccessful criteria.

Hopes for AR and knowledge distribution skyrocket as key influencers in the customer’s organization get onboard, spawning long-term strategy impacts on whiteboards. It’s in these meetings where the technology is heavily oversold to blue sky futures, and distanced from the practical realities for which they were intended.

3. Dip/Trough of disillusionment

This is a crucial phase where many companies fail to alter their products with upgraded versions and [too] few who were successful in addressing problems [have the ability to] continue investing more.

The first results with a customer are in, and they are a bit of a let-down. What happened?! The fair-weather champions in the management team now flip 180 degrees.

4. Slope of betterment/enlightenment

At this point, innovation and investment become more important for growth as, companies establish products based on future technology and test them in the real environment.

Now somewhat seasoned, the end users and adjacent teams within the customer learn more about their own use cases and applications for AR.

5. Elevation/Plateau in productivity

In the last phase, productivity elevates and deepens its root in that technological field. Products become widely implemented in technology and producers establish quality standards.

Finally, long term productivity improvements set in, however it only experiences a gradual growth in impact because of internal scarcity in AR authoring skills and the difficulty of scaling customization for their use cases.

The author then goes on to explain their approach in terms of the 3 key things that you can do to help a company scale augmented reality faster, more productively, and more legitimately.

1. Realize early that AR is not a silver bullet
2. Start with the right use case, then scale
3. On-board, enable and train with the right Partners

These three key topics are then explored in detail in the full blog.

RealWear cameras provide video and audio links, which allow real-time, remote interactions with suppliers, colleagues, and systems such as Microsoft Teams. The technology consists of a special camera placed on a helmet, giving the user a hands-free experience, allowing them to manipulate equipment and tools while transmitting live video and audio. Voice commands control the camera, which increases safety during complex tasks.

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, a supplier in Italy was unable to support local employees on-site, which led to the adoption of the RealWear smart glasses in June.

RealWear provides field training and in-situ information via both hardware and software, increasing productivity and safety at work. See their member profile here.

The Qualcomm XEP is designed to accelerate the adoption of virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR), collectively known as extended reality (XR), in industries including architecture, engineering and construction, aerospace, automotive, education, energy, entertainment, food & beverage, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, retail, transportation and travel. The program offers members access to a global community of resources, promotional and co-marketing opportunities, business development and visibility into upcoming Qualcomm Technologies’ hardware and software roadmap and product features, among other benefits.

Qualcomm stated that in its inaugural year, several Qualcomm XEP members have benefitted from the program including:

• Mitchell International, which recently introduced Mitchell Intelligent Vision, a standalone XR hands-free solution integrated into the collision repair workflow. Leveraging Mitchell’s patent-pending technology and the Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile XR Platform, the solution came to fruition in part through Qualcomm Technologies’ longstanding relationship with RealWear;
• Spatial, the collaboration platform that connects remote teams in 3D workspaces, will bring collaborative AR experiences to the mass market via global operators with the launch of XR Viewers in 2021. Through Qualcomm Technologies’ introductions, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, Japan’s KDDI and South Korea’s LG Uplus will carry Nreal XR Viewers that tether to a 5G-enabled smartphone powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or 865 Mobile Platforms, with Spatial software integrated;
• XRHealth, a telemedicine VR solutions provider,  was connected through the Qualcomm XEP initiative to Pico Interactive and now XRHealth pre-installs its VR therapy platform on Pico’s VR devices powered by Snapdragon, meeting an increased need for telehealth and socially distant healthcare solutions amid the pandemic;
• VictoryXR, a provider of educational XR content, unveiled its Pico-VictoryXR affordable package for 1:1 classroom headset called ‘VR in a Box’. The solution features the company’s ‘VictoryXR Academy’ content platform that includes 54 titles and 240 unique VR experiences, as a result of the Qualcomm XEP connection to Qualcomm Technologies’ ODM partners.

“We are all in on our commitment to driving the XR industry forward on a global scale, while simultaneously advancing XR technology for the enterprise,” said Brian Vogelsang, senior director of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are incredibly proud of what our Qualcomm XEP members have accomplished in the first year and are confident this collection of innovators will be a key component in meeting the increased demands in enterprise for collaboration and remote work, skills training, education and learning, data visualization, and health and wellness solutions.”

One of the newest members of Qualcomm XEP is industrial internet of things and digital transformation provider, PTC, which builds upon the program’s commitment to delivering multi-dimensional experiences that help optimize performance and productivity to transform the way people work across various industries.

“Technologies such as IoT and AR are imperative for the industrial sector to transform and operate at the highest level of efficiency,” said Mike Campbell, GM of the Vuforia Business division at PTC. “Collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies and connecting with other Qualcomm XEP ecosystem members will help drive the adoption of cost-effective, purpose-built augmented reality solutions for our customers in the industrial enterprise.”

The Qualcomm XEP initiative is a branch of the Qualcomm Advantage Network. Qualified members gain access to Qualcomm Technologies-supported benefits and the Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program badge as a mark of industry excellence and innovation. For more information and to apply for the program, click here. For a complete list all Qualcomm XEP members, click here.

Michael Hasselberg, Associate Director of the University of Rochester Medical Health Lab, is quoted to have said that AR’s seamlessness makes it easy to use in training, and that the technology is currently used predominantly in training medical students. He claims that Vuzix is “innovative” and has made the M400 Smart Glasses comfortable to wear for long periods of time in addition to being user-friendly.

President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix, Paul Travers, has further stated that the company is focused on providing “all day” enterprise wearables, and they are satisfied to have contributed to “potentially life saving” medical training at the University of Rochester Medical Centre. Vuzix’s Smart Glasses applications in the healthcare industry are steadily expanding both in the US and globally, in certain European and East Asian countries.

Read the PR Newswire article here.

Bellanger writes that, “Earlier this year, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz resigned from the Augmented Reality headset company he founded in 2010. It was clear that the device his company had spent nearly a decade developing wasn’t viable for the consumer market, though it had previously been heralded the industry leader.

Abovitz’s departure came one month after the company had laid off one-third of its staff, following attempts to sell itself. While the move coincided with mass layoffs across the country owing to the coronavirus pandemic, some employees didn’t buy COVID as the root of Magic Leap’s immediate struggles, Bloomberg reported.

Despite the company’s uncertain future, when Peggy Johnson heard Abovitz was stepping down, she raised her hand for the job. At the time, she was Microsoft’s EVP of business development—she’d been one of Satya Nadella’s first hires—and she had experience with augmented reality, working with Microsoft’s HoloLens as well as Qualcomm’s Vuforia product.

“I had an ambition for a while to be a CEO, but I knew it needed to be the right fit for me,” Johnson told Fortune senior writer Maria Aspan along with attendees of Fortune’s virtual Most Powerful Women Summit on Thursday in her first interview since she assumed the role in August. “I had had a great run at Microsoft, and I loved it, but I just wanted to step into that role. When you look around, there are so few women CEOs, and even fewer in the tech industry. And I just wanted to take the reins and do it.”

HoloLens had a similar trajectory to Magic Leap. It was first envisioned as a gaming device, but because of its high price tag, it’s now targeted more toward business. Under Johnson’s leadership, that’s the direction Magic Leap is headed today.

Sensing trouble, when Johnson assumed the role, many onlookers used the phrase “glass cliff” to indicate the belief that Johnson was taking on leadership of a failing company and thus doomed to fail herself.

“I don’t worry at all about it,” Johnson said in response to these concerns. “And frankly, sometimes it’s exhausting that that word is put forward when a woman steps into a CEO job. I chose this. And I chose it because of all of the elements that were in place.”

Johnson listed Magic Leap’s device itself as well as its IP portfolios and “diverse, talented team” as elements she identified that would position the company for future success as it transitioned toward the enterprise space.

Now, in line with her business development background and drawing upon her 35-year career, Johnson says she’s focused on growing the company’s list of partnerships. Magic Leap is reportedly in talks with Amazon regarding implementing its cloud services, though Johnson did not discuss any developments with Fortune.

“What I’m focused on is ensuring we’re picking the right areas of enterprise to focus on,” she said, citing training, remote assist, and 3D visualization as the three primary use cases the company is zeroing in on. Given the rise of remote work owing to the COVID pandemic, Johnson says she sees promise for teams to meet virtually and review product designs.

For another example, far-flung diagnostics professionals may be able to help fix machinery: If a person on a factory floor is wearing a headset mounted with a camera and a screen, a remote worker can circle components and identify problems.

Meanwhile, Magic Leap is deploying its own technology to a similar end. It recently used augmented reality headsets to host a board meeting, providing the illusion that avatars of board members were seated inside Johnson’s home.

“They all showed up in the room behind me, in my library,” Johnson said. Amid the pandemic, “it felt finally, that emotional factor that you get in a physical meeting was back again.”

The project will function in the following way (visualised in Auganix’s article):

• Warehouse operator starts acceptance checklist
• Automatic damage/shortage detection
• Scan label to start a checklist on the MAWB nb
• Fill in checklists with voice command
• High quality pictures of damage added to check
• Data automatic send to cloud in one report

Iristick reported this month that testing and validating two new proof-of-concepts has led to a new project milestone. The first one, currently passing the testing phase, focused on digitisation of acceptance checklists. The second, which has almost completed its first development sprint, aims to automate a shipment’s label recognition via Artificial Intelligence, improving handling processes.

Additionally, Iristick has stated that these proof-of-concepts can potentially deal with multiple manual procedures and tasks within ground handling operations, via innovation and improvement of standard operational processes in the air cargo sector. Field testing for smart glass technology in the airfreight industry was based on the following criteria:

• Improved observation and data capture
• Eliminating paper-based procedures
• Speed up the air cargo processes
• Create a safer work environment

The article concludes by stating that feedback from testing week has made way for developing a future-proof scope, enabling an improved handling process. Iristick’s ultimate aim with the implementation of XR technology is to change the air cargo industry future.

Read Iristick’s AREA member profile

Key points in the article include:

• In 2019, Qualcomm foreshadowed that XR2 was on the cusp of being adopted by AR/VR headset makers.
• The Snapdragon XR2 and Niantic’s XR2-powered AR glasses were both announced by their respective companies without a product or timeline/imagery to go with them.
• However, Geekbench 5 released results last week for the HTC Vive Focus model with the XR2, and its likely configuration matched with the specs.
• Completed XR2-powered headsets will vary depending on the company despite Qualcomm providing the reference platforms and chipset.
• Horwitz, the writer of the article, believes that the general trend will favour higer-resolution VR displays.
• Pico’s high-resolution Neo 2 is powered by a Snapdragon 845, therefore Horwitz expects that XR2 headsets will surpass Pico’s quality – the new headsets will likely use 90Hz refresh rates, creating display speeds of PC standard, therefore reduced nausea.
• Facebook’s Quest achieved complex visuals from the Snapdragon 835, and Qualcomm’s suggestion that the XR2 has twice as much GPU and CPU power as the 835 means that XR2-powered titles will rival previous visuals.
• Since “current-generation” and “entry-level” are changeable, there is no way mobile-class XR2 headsets will entirely eliminate a demand for high-spec technology, however, the visual delta between tethered and untethered headsets will be less of a priority.
• Snapdragon XR2’s Artificial Intelligence processing capabilities could also be a key factor in enhancing MR headset performance.
• Although quantity does matter in regards to AI performance, as do quality and system-level engineering and software considerations making use of competencies.
• AI can further impact MR headset performance via generating solutions for partly original problems, empowering computer opponents, enabling richer voice controls, and segmenting live visuals to blend with digital content.

The article concludes by acknowledging that nothing is currently certain in regards to release of XR headsets due to COVID-19, however, it appears that Snapdragon XR2 headsets will be in stores relatively soon.

Release Highlights:

• Cloud Sync

• • A new application that enables customers to easily authenticate to cloud storage drives including Microsoft OneDrive, upload tagged photos / videos captured in My Camera and browse cloud drives in My Files

• Ease of Use

• • Tetrominos, a fun Tetris-like game which helps users get familiar with RealWear’s user interface
  • Wi-Fi Band Control which allows end users or IT Admins to lock their RealWear devices to either the 2.4 or 5 GHz band
  • My Controls Grid View to easily navigate the growing functionality in My Controls

• Security

• • Android Security Patches from March – July 2020 integrated into the RealWear device firmware
  • Updated Lock Screen which leverages a secure keyboard instead of head tracking

• Equity and Inclusion

• • Changes in software and documentation terminology in support of equity and inclusion

• Full Language Support for Traditional Chinese
• Bug Fixes – As with any release, bug fixes and minor enhancements are incorporated.

See Realwear’s AREA member profile here

Visit RealWear’s website here

Mike Boland of AR Insider claims that there are key lessons to be learned from Porsche’s investment, as it indicates that AR is working. Also, Porsche got past ‘pilot purgatory’, which is when enterprises integrate AR but fail to gain mass adoption, often a result of poor communication with front line workers uncertain in utilising such technology. Via Atheer’s influence of “thinking like a marketer”, Porsche has now avoided pilot purgatory.

Another way in which Atheer has guided Porsche is by deploying AR in the most impactful areas. For example, Atheer has reported that AR is more useful in guidance rather than training, despite VR’s ability to increase knowledge retention in training. Therefore, AR has a greater impact in non-repetitive jobs.

Amar Dhaliwal, CEO of Atheer, is quoted to have said that they start by assessing what it is that Porsche is trying to do; if this is training-related, then Atheer will advise against deploying AR, as it will not have the suitable ROI.

The leading standalone VR headset, Oculus Quest, has been increasingly focusing on controllerless hand-tracking as a means of input for the device. Other major headset makers, like Microsoft and its HoloLens 2, have also honed in on hand-tracking as a key input method. As industry leaders coalesce around hand-tracking, it becomes increasingly important for competing devices to offer similar functionality.

But hand-tracking isn’t a ‘solved’ problem, making it a challenge for organizations that don’t have the resources of Facebook and Microsoft to work out their own hand-tracking solution.