June 28, 2019
It’s a shame that AR/VR was overhyped in 2018 because in 2019 the technology is a fixture in enterprise.
I’ll be blunt: Augmented, mixed and virtual reality were overhyped in 2018. While 2018 turned out not to be the year of AR/VR; please don’t roll your eyes when I tell you that 2019 is the year at least for enterprise, and of that I have no doubt.
Here are a few of the signs:
- More than half of the announcements made at AWE USA 2019 (a staple on the AR/VR calendar) were enterprise-related
- Some of the world’s biggest consumer tech companies are now entering the immersive tech space, primarily eyeing enterprise
- The top names in consumer VR are also heavily courting the enterprise
Why? Why are AR/VR hardware and software companies pivoting to enterprise? The answer is obvious: Because enterprise is where the money is. Both AR/VR technology providers and the world’s best-known companies (end users) are making/saving big.
If you follow enterprise AR/VR, you’re no doubt familiar with Google (Glass), Microsoft, and PTC (Vuforia). Other longtime players include Atheer, Epson, HPE, LogistiVIEW, ScopeAR, RealWear, ThirdEye, Ubimax, Upskill and Vuzix. Qualcomm, Honeywell, and Toshiba (dynabook) have become fixtures on the scene, as well, and by that I mean regular exhibitors at EWTS, the only event dedicated to enterprise use of immersive and wearable technologies. Newer sponsors include Jujotech, Pico and RE’FLEKT, along with Bose, HTC and Lenovo, joining top enterprise wearable device and industrial exoskeleton makers on the EWTS roster.
Doesn’t Bose make headphones?
Yes, they do. Bose is known as a consumer audio vender, but it also makes Bose Frames, which provided exclusive audio content and set-time notifications to desert-goers at this year’s Coachella music festival. Founded in 1964, Bose is taking an audio-first approach to augmented reality today with Bose AR, not only at concerts or in automobiles but in meeting rooms, too. Audio AR is a natural fit in the Industrial Internet of Things.
The pivot
In April 2019, Oculus introduced the expanded Oculus for Business, an enterprise solution designed to streamline and grow VR in the workplace. The expanded solution adds Oculus Quest to the hardware lineup and provides a suite of tools to help companies reshape the way they do business with VR.
The following month, Lenovo launched an enterprise AR/VR headset, the ThinkReality A6, immediately positioned as a rival to Microsoft’s HoloLens. Articles spoke of Lenovo as “just the latest manufacturer to develop an AR device aimed at enterprise.” On the heels of Lenovo’s first foray into enterprise XR, HTC announced the HTC Vive Focus Plus, a new version of its Vive Pro that will only be made available to enterprise customers. Furthermore, HTC’s Vive X accelerator has been “pouring money” into enterprise VR startups.
The proof is in the toolbox
The digital transformation isn’t here; it’s underway at hundreds of companies, including household names like Ford, UPS, and Walmart.
Every year, enterprises take the stage at EWTS to share how they’re using wearable and immersive technologies. They share their experiences and best practices, their successes and failures, and then they return the following year. These “veteran speakers” are another sign of AR/VR’s secure position in the present and future of work: AGCO, Boeing, DHL, Lockheed Martin, and Porsche come back year after year to update peers from Bayer, BP, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, and other Fortune 500 companies on the latest applications for the technology in their operations. EWTS speakers span industries and sectors: Airbus, BMW, Chevron, Colgate-Palmolive, Con Edison, Duke Energy, General Electric, Gensler, jetBlue, John Deere, Lowe’s, Molson Coors, Southwest Airlines, Thyssenkrupp, Toyota, United Technologies, etc. And new faces join every year—This year’s event will welcome AIG, Amazon, American Airlines, Bridgestone, Exelon, Holiday Inn, Philip Morris, Sanofi, Six Flags, and more to the stage. It’s a cycle: Attendees become users who become speakers, and the technology continues to advance.
Beyond pilots
Lockheed Martin has been a longtime advocate of AR/VR, benefitting so much from mixed reality that it’s now teaming up with Microsoft to sell mixed reality apps to other businesses in the airline and aviation industry. Rollout is growing at BMW, too: The luxury auto manufacturer is providing all its U.S. dealerships (347 BMW centers and select MINI dealers) with Ubimax Frontline running on RealWear HMT-1 head-mounted devices. Shell is also deploying RealWear’s HMT-1Z1 through Honeywell in 12 countries and 24 operational sites. And last year, Walmart announced it was putting 17,000 VR headsets in its U.S. stores for employee training. These aren’t mere pilots. At AGCO, Boeing, and other large manufacturers augmented reality is a standard workforce tool for a variety of tasks in multiple areas of operation. In the last three months alone, Fortune 500 companies in the news for using AR/VR included Audi (Volkswagen), ExxonMobil, Nissan, and even Farmer’s Insurance. Deloitte estimates that over 150 companies in multiple industries, including 52 of the Fortune 500, are testing or have deployed AR/VR solutions. The 6th annual EWTS is the proof.
Reality check
It helps that the tech is steadily improving, of course. This was the first year that I walked around AWE and was truly amazed by the quality of immersive experiences I tried. So, here’s a reality check: AR/VR is having an impact across business and industry and it’s not going away. It’s not future tech; it’s now. And it’s not just AR/VR glasses and headsets but body-worn wearables, as well, sometimes in conjunction with VR as well as in applications warranting an entire day – the third day of EWTS 2019 – devoted to below-the-neck and safety wearables. We’re talking biometric, environment and location tracking, employee ergonomics, partial and full-body exoskeletons—it’s all here today in the enterprise.
Image source: The Verge
