A Quiet Virtual CES Holds Positive Announcements and Outlook for AR and VR in 2021

CES 2021 brought a handful of welcome (if expected) announcements in the Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) realms. Lenovo launched a new smart glasses product in the A3-targeting enterprise. Vuzix unveiled their latest product plan leveraging micro-organic light-emitting diode displays and once again reduced the form factor of the smart glasses platform. Panasonic revisited their VR glasses product, first shown at CES 2020; the company (along with others in the field) also showcased some interesting automotive heads-up-display examples as CES’s automotive focus continues to grow.

One standout AR/VR example at the show was Fiat-Chrysler’s fully AR and VR enabled CES “booth.” The experience had high-quality renderings of 12 vehicles for users to explore and came with a virtual assistant for a guided tour, if desired. While immersive branding and marketing are nothing new, FCA rightfully capitalized on the virtual CES to roll out a robust example of this use case. The company also partnered with Google to enable cloud rendering and edge streaming of content as well; cloud computing and streaming has been a buzzword in the AR and VR market for years, and we are beginning to see more real-world examples.

CES has always created a unique opportunity to showcase new products, content, and experiences in a unique way, and the virtual component of this year’s show still allowed that but in a different way. 5G has been a buzzword in the tech industry for years, and CES often had many examples of leveraging 5G, despite the show being less connectivity focused than, say, a Mobile World Congress. The past few CES shows have had examples of 5G streaming AR/VR content in real time, leveraging the high bandwidth and low latency of an optimal 5G signal. Examples like FCA and Google take things a step further under a forced virtual showroom where the showcased idea expands beyond just a booth demonstration.

Going forward, greater partnership opportunities around cloud providers and telcos (especially leveraging 5G) will drive interest and value for this type of experience outside of virtual conferences as well. “Dumb” devices—where onboard components are limited to save weight and price—can leverage cloud computing and streaming and negate some of the primary head-worn pitfalls—price, comfort, and usability. Look at the uptake of cloud gaming as an excellent parallel to this; with a good enough connection, a low-power device can have a higher quality experience than even top-tier local hardware, thanks to cloud computing and streaming.

As COVID-19 continues to pressure established markets in retail, brands are looking for novel ways not only to sell products but also to market them. AR marketing was steadily growing pre-pandemic and has seen renewed interest during the pandemic; if expected returns on these AR market efforts come to fruition, this marketing will continue for the foreseeable future.

The immersive markets are in a unique position at the cusp of a positive inflection for a few notable reasons: increasing consumer interest that will be matched with big name activity, unprecedented desire for remote connection for both enterprises and regular users, and a confluence of maturing-enabling technologies being properly invested in and integrated—primarily with 5G, machine vision, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of things. This will be reflected in new announcements and activity as the market becomes more horizontal than verticalized looking forward.

Opportunities in connectivity and cloud perhaps best showcase these new technologies where delivery methods often do not care who the end user is or what the end device is. Improved form factor, battery life, and processing capability (by off-loading) benefit all, and the market will react appropriately to that no matter who the enterprise or consumer is. Telcos have an opportunity for both new device and new content type delivery that will present varied challenges for latency, concurrency, and bandwidth. Even purely consumer-targeted developments, such as the eventual Apple, Google, and Facebook immersive hardware, will not be limited to a single vertical or a single market. High-end VR equipment initially targeting consumer gaming has been well received in enterprise verticals for simulation, training, and content creation. In addition, enterprise efforts in remote assistance have crossed over to consumers in areas like product and post-sales support. Platforms serving content and device enablement also highlight this move toward a horizontal market; this began with a movement from single-use-case to multi-use-case operations, and the next stage of this will be multidevice, multi-connectivity, and universal usage.

A horizontal market can sometimes be more complex, with a greater number of challenges across technologies and end markets, but the potential grows significantly in kind. Efforts in hardware capability, security, content distribution and democratization, user interface and user experience design, and use-case applicability all increase the end user’s value. All told, as these elements come together, so too does the value. It has taken a while for both AR and VR, but the value shown in individual silos of technology—cloud computing, edge streaming, AI, 5G, and more—can easily be expounded as these coalesce with AR and VR as the necessary user-facing interaction and consumption element.