What does the current AR landscape tell us about where opportunities lie? We’ve seen all kinds of AR action recently, including developer conferences and announcements from Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.

Our latest Intelligence Briefing looks at these moves all in one place to predict market outcomes and indicate opportunities for startups and media companies. This is also the topic of the latest ARtillry Workshop presentation.

Consisting of slides and slides and voiceover, the full video is embedded below; and here are a few quick takeaways:

— There are several macro factors causing multimedia capture and sharing become a prevalent consumer use case. That includes better camera optics, mobile broadband, millennial behavior and the offerings/innovation from Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.

— This is causing the smartphone camera to take over as the next development platform, where product innovation will reside. And that has natural synergies with lots of smartphone based AR products and software development.

— Most major tech giants have responded to these trends with a major AR push… and each respective strategy mirrors the positioning and priorities of that company.

— For example, Apple launched ARKit to breathe new life into waning iPhone sales (where it makes most of its margins). Google sees AR as a way to boost “visual search” and user engagement. Facebook wants to boost multimedia sharing through AR lenses. And Amazon wants to get you to buy more stuff, using AR to qualify purchases and visualize product placement in home.

— Recognizing each of these giants’ priorities and trajectory can inform decisions about filling necessary gaps in the AR value chain and “skate to where the puck is going.”

— For example, heavy “visual search” use such as Google Lens will require lots of location tagged data such as place information and local business attributes. These data sets will be a valuable and in-demand component of a visual search future.

See the rest below. Originally produced for a beginner audience, more advanced viewers can skip introductions and definitions by using the video chapter links

AR State of the Union: Chapter Links
Definitions, market sizes
Mobile: AR’s stepping stone
Facebook
Apple
Amazon
Google

Disclosure: ARtillry has no financial stake in the companies mentioned in this article, nor received payment for its production. Disclosure and ethics policy can be seen here.

Header image credit: CNET