Augmented Reality (AR) is quite a speculative industry which generates a lot of buzz around it. The world has already seen projects like PokemonGo, National Geographic AR installations, Heineken AR bottles, Lacoste AR shoes, and even AR hazard mapping in the energy and utilities industry. Despite the fact that 68.7 million will use AR at least once per month in 2019, according to eMarketer , the question remains: “Is anybody using Augmented Reality every day?”. If so, who is using it and for what purposes? How are they benefiting from it and how much are they willing to pay for it? These are the first questions you probably ask yourself before starting your own Augmented Reality business. In this article, we’ll do our best to break them down to make sure you’re realistic with your business decisions and industry choice. Have an idea for augmented reality project? Request a quote Related portfolio Brainstorm Industries Where AR is or can be Used Regularly The reason you want users to experience AR every day is for consistency. Without this consistency, it’s hard to measure the impact of an AR product in any niche. But how do you know where to apply your AR expertise? First, you have to define what AR is about. “Augmented Reality helps to visualize things. Period.” Who is having a hard time visualizing processes, structures, objects, procedures? Think of the following industries to answer this question: Medical students or practitioners Physics, chemistry, mathematics, and aerodynamics experts Urban planners, architects, interior and exterior designers Education and eLearning platforms & mobile apps Game development companies, game publishers (for marketing purposes) Digital marketers and brand advertisers Commercial real estate managers, brokers Big automotive brands, manufacturers Concept designers, art studios, museums Now, it’s your choice to keep going or select a few industries and see exactly what you can do with Augmented Reality to help them benefit from it. Define a Business Model for Your Augmented Reality Startup In this case, we’ll focus on the two most popular business models. You can either be an augmented reality development agency or a custom AR service provider like Program-Ace or you can create your own AR product which B2C or B2B clients can use to their advantage. AR development services In the case of being an augmented reality service provider, the business model is pretty straightforward. We’ll use our company as an example. Program-Ace is an R&D augmented reality production company with full-cycle expertise which allows us to build AR apps from A to Z. With over 120 team members on board, we become a technological partner for retail, education, marketing and advertising, industrial design, construction and real estate, gaming, military and defense industry representatives. “In 2019, we see that the AR market is very dynamic. This market instability forces us to be flexible and focus on several industries to stay relevant to the market needs.” The problem with AR market is that it’s being tested by numerous companies which are willing to find out what works for them and their clients or consumers. That’s why a lot of AR projects are being started quickly and are abandoned even quicker. This is why you can also find your niche in the augmented reality consulting business. AR product services One may argue that a product is going to generate revenue for an indefinite period of time, assuming that that’s quite a lot of time, and is more stable than providing AR development services. With an infant market like AR, it’s impossible to be 100% sure that a product is going to perform better than services. However, it’s thanks to the products that services even exist. If you were to create an AR application or platform, what would that be? There are several issues with AR products: Users have no habit of downloading pre-baked AR apps for a particular product because they know it’s purely done for marketing purposes (if we are talking about augmented reality in marketing) Most apps have no meaningful everyday use. That’s why Heineken, KateSpade, AMC, and Heinz failed . Users haven’t yet truly adopted the AR experience similar to mobile gaming, for example Only the latest smartphones support AR, and ARKit/ARCore in particular AR headsets are bulky and used only for development purposes or very limited industrial testing However, when you take meaningful, entertaining/educating, and interactive content and combine it with features we all got used to like purchasing, sharing, and exchanging content, this is where a real product is born. In fact, many startups manage to build their business around Augmented Reality and make a profit. And it’s not that hard. You simply need a proficient business analyst to determine the product market fit. And if you don’t have one – you can contact us. Besides the right business model it is necessary to think about technology stack you will use for your AR a
