Weekly Mashup 105: AR & VR Soon Worth $150 Billion

VR and Augmented Reality Will Soon Be Worth $150 Billion. Here are the Major Players
Fast Company

"Together, virtual reality and augmented reality are expected to generate about $150 billion in revenue by the year 2020. Of that staggering sum, according to data published today by Manatt Digital Media, and originally sourced from Digi-Capital, $120 billion is likely to come from sales of augmented reality—with the lion’s share comprised of hardware, commerce, data, voice services, and film and TV projects—and $30 billion from virtual reality, mainly from games and hardware." Read More

I Watched the Debat in Virtual Reality. Things Got Weird
Wired

"Last night, CNN aired the first Democratic debate of the 2016 election to millions of TV viewers, and to an indeterminate but undoubtedly much smaller number of virtual-reality headset owners. CNN worked with California company NextVR, which is building a live-broadcast infrastructure for the VR community. Using Oculus’s software and Samsung’s hardware, they brought a real-time broadcast to face-computer-wearing viewers everywhere." Read More

The Next Big Thing: Augmented Reality
PC Magazine

"Everyone knows about the new developments in virtual reality, like the Oculus Rift, which attracted $2 billion from Facebook. But the buzz is slowly shifting to augmented reality. So far the entire idea of the goggles has simplified to the point where you now have Google Cardboard, a headset made of cardboard into which you drop a mobile phone running an app to simulate the Oculus Rift experience." Read More

Augmented Reality Set to Dominate Virtual Variety by 2020
USA Today

"News flash: VR is poised to take a significant backseat to AR — augmented reality — as soon as gear providing that partly immersive experience becomes mature. By 2020, AR will claim a projected $120 billion of the total $150 billion AR/VR market, according to a new report from Manatt Digital Media, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm targeting digital entertainment and advertising firms." Read More

Microsoft Lab Working on Multiperson Augmented Reality
CNET

"If augmented reality could be a shared experience, it could change the way we will use the technology. Something along these lines is currently in development at a Microsoft laboratory run by Jaron Lanier, one of the pioneers of VR since the 1980s through his company VPL Research. The project, called Comradre, allows multiple users to share virtual- and augmented-reality experiences, reports MIT Technology Review." Read More