The Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality

source: arvrmagazine.com

IDC reported that worldwide spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is forecasted to reach $17.8 billion in 2018, an increase of nearly 95% over the $9.1 billion spent in 2017. The thing is, neither VR nor AR are new technologies, so why the sudden year over year growth? The answer: mobile technology.

From bulky Nokias to sleek iPhones, mobile technology has skyrocketed in recent years. We’ve moved past the days where a simple game of Snake was all that our phones could take. As cell phones evolved into smartphones, their capabilities grew exponentially. For example, with a VR headset our phones can transport us to a completely new world, and with a camera, they can combine the real and imaginary to create an augmented version of both.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is something that brings back childhood memories of wishing we could jump into our favorite video games or movies and join the action, right there alongside the action heroes. It’s immersive storytelling in which you join the action, offering untold potential in terms of engagement. With virtual reality you’re no longer a spectator, you’re a participant.

When we pair mobile technology with devices like Google Cardboard, you arrive at VR all consumers can use. And if the consumer can use it, brands can produce it. Case in point, The New York Times and its NYT VR app, which became the most successful app launch in NYT history. That was back in 2015 — imagine what can happen today.

source: arvrmagazine.com

In 2018, virtual reality will be used for marketing, advertising, and anything else you can think of. Brands will use its ability to completely immerse users in a literal virtual reality as a cool and fun way of showing off and advertising their products and services, such as the ones in this post with the 10 best uses of VR in marketing.

Augmented Reality

AR, like VR, utilizes the virtual in an effort to spice up what’s real. But unlike VR, AR augments your surroundings in a complementary interaction between reality and imagination. In other words, it’s a coexistence of physical and virtual.

Big players such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and Snapchat are already making strides in the AR industry. Apple introduced ARKit and Google rolled out ARCore, two collections of tools for developers who want to bring AR features in their apps, Facebook has World Effects, an AR feature for photos and videos that enable you to drop 3D objects into your surroundings to capture and share fun moments with your friends and family, and finally, Snapchat has, well, Snapchat.

The immediate popularity of apps like Snapchat and Pokemon Go have shown us that users not only want AR, they need it. To enter the AR market in 2018, brands need to understand how consumers will interact with the technology and where to make use of it in the customer journey. For example, they can start early and use it to promote their products by putting up flyers that jump out at you when viewed through an AR app. They can also copy IKEA, who created an app with AR functionality to show off their products in their consumers’ homes, and use it after consumers are already aware of their products.

Final Thoughts & TL;DR

Virtual and augmented reality are geared to be the two very important mobile technologies in 2018. One epitomizes immersive storytelling the other transforms the world around you into an enhanced version of itself. And here’s the Tl;dr version of what we covered today:
● Worldwide spending on augmented reality and virtual reality is forecasted to increase drastically because of advancements in mobile technology
● VR takes us back to our childhood and turns us from spectators to participants
● Pairing mobile technology with devices like Google Cardboard gives us VR all consumers can use
● VR can be used for marketing, advertising, and anything else you can think of because of its ability to increase brand engagement beyond anything else
● AR augments your surroundings in a complementary interaction between reality and imagination
● Big players such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and Snapchat are already making strides in the AR industry
● AR can be used anywhere in the customer journey to either introduce a brand’s products and services or promote them further
Enjoy experiencing these alternate realities!

Women Leads Man When It comes to mobile & social Media Adoption

There is no second thought in saying that the world where we live today is changed so far. In early decade, if we see technology & gadgets are often seen as man’s cup of tea. But now things are changed. Women are competing with men in almost every field.  While in some cases even they lead the men when it comes to using mobile technology and social media and also dominates the internet usage.

Here let’s discuss some interesting facts between men and women when it comes to mobile technology and social media. It will make us understand more clearly that women is leading men from usage of gadgets to wearable technology & online shopping to social media. 

According to 2015 research by thestreet.com, 19% of women uses smartwatch to 9% of men. It means Women are more than twice to own a smart watch than men. Not only smartwatch but tablets and smartphones usage in women is higher. 36% of women use tablet to 29% of men, similarly smartphone usage in women is 34% versus 32% of men to manage the portfolios and other social activities.

Similarly women are fond of social networking for staying in touch with family and friends as well as for accessing online offers, searching for ratings and reviews of the products. Men in contrast use the social media more for business and dating purpose. As, social media helps men to connect with the business world, perform important research and ultimately increase their brand awareness. 

Let’s have a look at some of the statistics of January 2015.

Image Source: business2community.com

We can see from above graph that More no. of female use Facebook, Pinterest, twitter and Instagram while men’s interest is higher on Google+, LinkedIn and Reedit.

In broader terms, 76% of women use Facebook to 66% of men and 33% of women use Pinterest as compared to 8% of men. While if we analyse for the LinkedIn than men is leading the race (24% versus 19%). It is not just about the numbers but it is about the engagement and interest. Women’s are more engaged on social media because they can easily interact with the brands, can access coupons, on top of this they regularly update themselves with all the essential news, health & beauty tips shared on the pages they follow.

Whereas the mobile technology plays the perfect role to make all this things possible for the females. According to research it is found that mobiles appeal more to women than men because 42% of women feels m- commerce is better option for social activities and online purchasing unlikely to men whose percentage is quarter to this. Moreover to this, Women more likely to use mobile phones for all the other small activities like clicking pictures for future reference while buying anything from near-by stores, comparing product price on comparison apps and sometimes if they found something better then they start shopping on phones rather than sticking with the products of the stores they are standing in.

  

All such activities shows agencies and brands need to take care about the women behaviour when it comes to the m-commerce because the real power behind mobile social technology is women.

Check below an infographic that shows the attention-grabbing statistics why women are the real driving factor behind social media:

Image Source: socialmediatoday.com