Boom in AR/VR as a Result of Global Competition in the Mobile Industry

In the last 1–2 years, we have been witnessing an active interest of global corporations — Google, Samsung, Apple and others — in Augmented and Virtual Reality. What causes such close attention, and why weren’t corporations interested before?

In my opinion, in the 90s the world producers of “personal electronics” competed only slightly and engaged more in expansion into local markets — Nokia was almost unknown in the United States, while Motorola was barely represented in the European market. Prior to 2003–2004, these corporations were securing markets, teaching consumers how to use smartphones, and in fact creating very similar platforms.

With the emergence of Apple’s iPhone, the market got its first universal platform for services and content — popular in all markets, which qualitatively changed the global nature of the mobile industry. Instead of expansion into local markets we got global competition; those who could not scale left the market.

Looking at market shares of the major players in the last 2–3 years, the period of expansion has ended and they compete harshly by “burning marketing budgets”, which decreases their margins. Nothing fundamentally new has changed in smartphones — the competition is in “screen size” and simple additional services.

What is the easiest way to escape direct, unfavorable competition? That’s right — start developing adjacent areas, or even better, create new markets. One of these promising new markets is VR and AR.

Our sphere slowly but steadily created prototype devices just by the time open competition among smartphone manufacturers started. These prototypes deliver content and services more effectively (not in 2D, but in 3D) — and, more importantly, at large scale. Therefore, the major smartphone manufacturers started actively investing, realizing that the next battle for consumers’ wallets will not be at arm’s length, but directly in front of consumers’ eyes.

Well, we can only increase our efforts to develop the most organic devices and interfaces in VR and AR. Thanks to growing competition between large corporations, the best VR/AR companies will get the opportunity to reach consumers — by creating an entirely new reality or by augmenting it!

Best regards,
Vitaliy Goncharuk
LinkedIn