\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/5f47f_bizvr.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Chris Young is managing general partner at Revel Partners<\/a>, a B2B software early-stage venture fund.<\/p>\n Virtual reality and augmented reality had a reality check<\/em> in 2016. Despite heavy investment and industry buzz, the predicted mass adoption of VR\/AR never materialized. Scratch below the surface, however, and you can see the beginnings of real movement for the technology \u2014 albeit from a decidedly un-glitzy place.<\/p>\n B2B and enterprise applications of VR\/AR quietly had a very active year, and continue to gain traction in 2017. Application revenues from enterprise VR, in fact, are now projected to outpace consumer entertainment revenues by 2020. And without any of the hype.<\/p>\n Early adoption of VR\/AR for gaming and entertainment is clearly still in its infancy.\u00a0Even Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>\u00a0estimated a full decade would pass before it went mainstream. Blame it on the high costs of clunky hardware, the absence of \u201chit\u201d content or a general lack of consumer interest, but the industry\u2019s projected $700 billion revenue by 2025<\/a>\u00a0certainly seems a tad ambitious at this point. While consumer VR\/AR will almost certainly \u201carrive\u201d some day, just how big the industry will get, when it will take off and how remain the key questions.<\/p>\n Research firm Tractica projects\u00a0enterprise spending<\/a>\u00a0on VR\/AR will be roughly 35 percent greater than consumer spending on VR\/AR entertainment by 2020, not including hardware-related revenues. According to Tech Pro Research<\/a>, 67 percent of businesses that responded to their study are now considering using AR in the future, while 47 percent are considering VR. Digital transformation is converging with the decrease in cost of VR hardware. Couple that with advances in related software, systems and tools, and enterprise uses are fast becoming the industry\u2019s most viable launching pad.<\/p>\n In 2017, VR\/AR use cases continue to proliferate across diverse business categories, with innovators, entrepreneurs and startups leading the way. Healthcare, education, CPG\/FMCG, telecom, advertising and real estate are all beginning to benefit from virtual and enhanced reality applications. Hundreds of creative applications of 3D visualization and augmentation are coming to the fore.<\/p>\n The marketing and advertising segment is full of VR studios, application developers and distribution networks. Generally, they support agencies and brands to deliver immersive brand experiences for sales and marketing purposes. Outlyer Technologies,\u00a0for example<\/a>, is using 360-degree mobile ad formats to help drive user engagement. While recently at SXSW, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce utilized technology<\/a>\u00a0from Foundry 45 to provide a virtual experience of Atlanta to help recruit candidates. Atlanta, in particular, has seen a proliferation of VR\/AR companies, with approximately 50 now, where there was just a dozen a few years earlier.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just in marketing and advertising where these types of use cases are mushrooming. In manufacturing,\u00a0WorldViz<\/a>\u00a0has become a leader in visualization and testing with its Vizard and Vizmove VR application suite for companies as diverse as PG, Philips, 3M, Perkins Will and many others. Their open-source and extendable libraries enable large and small enterprises to quickly design, manipulate and test new products in real-world scenarios.<\/p>\n Uses in education \u2014 whether employee training, primary education or advanced research \u2014 are benefiting from VR\u2019s capabilities to visualize massive data sets and transport students to remote countries. Google\u2019s Project Expedition brings virtual discovery and immersive world tours to the\u00a0classroom<\/a>. Iceland\u2019s S\u00f3lfar Studios\u00a0recently gifted its Everest VR project to the Royal Geographical Society<\/a> in the U.K. These and others \u2014 like Alchemy VR<\/a>, Unimersiv<\/a> and Curiscope<\/a> \u2014 are quickly changing the education space with their immersive, experiential curriculum, tools and training.<\/p>\n VR for healthcare spans patient care, telemedicine, rehabilitation and training. Indeed, 2016 marked the first year\u00a0surgery was performed<\/a>\u00a0using a VR camera. Medical students (and the general public) were able to operate right along with the doctor using VR in an operation visualization application from Mativision<\/a>. VisitU<\/a> connects kids in the hospital to their own rooms through headsets and 360-degree cameras in their homes. The Virtual Reality Medical Center<\/a> is one of a growing number of medical practices in cyber psychology to help patients with phobias and other chronic mental health issues.<\/p>\n The industry as a whole has some way to go before it becomes the $700 billion behemoth some experts predict. This sampling of emerging uses driving innovation in the enterprise space, however, indicates a clear path to meaningful revenues for the technology. Certainly the field will continue to develop and evolve in the consumer space, but the enterprise and B2B cases are prolific\u00a0right now<\/em>. Smart entrepreneurs and developers will identify the key elements of early successes and apply those lessons to other consumer-relatable industries with a B2B focus. This is where the technology is finding its footing and opening the door to mass adoption.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Featured Image: Lina Truman<\/a>\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/4RbEdC5Nm58\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chris Young is managing general partner at Revel Partners, a B2B software early-stage venture fund. Virtual reality and augmented reality had a reality check in 2016. Despite heavy investment and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-6659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t