Welcome to Markcent’s annual predictions for (almost) next year. Discover AR/VR trends from previous years here. Were we right? Were we wrong? Find out for yourself: augmented reality and virtual reality trends 2020, AR/VR trends from 2019, augmented reality and virtual reality trends from 2017.

William 2022 to be the year AR and VR finally become a reality?

Since Pokemon Go captured our collective imagination in 2016, people have been waiting for the convergence of the physical and virtual worlds. However, despite some promising augmented and virtual reality technologies over the past five years, these technologies are still looking for a mass-market consumer audience.

This year that is starting to change. The biggest news, of course, is Mark Zuckerberg’s full-body embrace of metaverse — that magical playground where virtual people roam unburdened by physical bodies in unlimited 3D space — including renaming his company to “Meta”.

But Facebook — err, meta — is far from the only company working to make the metaverse a reality, notes Eric Abruzis, director of research at ABI Research.

“If it’s just Zuckerberg preaching on the metaverse, many others are in various stages of metaverse activity,” says Abbruzzese, who points to Epic Games, Roblox, Niantic, Unity, NVIDIA, SKTelecom, Verizon, and Alibaba. “There is tangible work and a tangible product.”

In 2021, consumer VR headsets began selling in bulk, led by the Oculus Quest 2, which sold more than 4 million units last year. At the same time, industrial uses of augmented reality continued to develop. For example, over the past year, augmented reality has been used to help doctors perform hip replacement surgery, cannabis implants, and doctors treat arachnophobia.

These trends are likely to accelerate in the coming year, thanks in part to investments from tech giants like Apple, the ongoing need for remote work solutions, and the proliferation of enabling technologies such as high-speed 5G wireless networks.

Will 2022 be the year when augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality become widespread? Here are five reasons why they do this.

1. New Virtual Reality Headphones: Virtual Reality gets closer to your face

Just in time for the explosion of virtual worlds, the much-anticipated AR/VR/XR headset for fans may become a reality in 2022.

At a Connect event last October, the company formerly known as Facebook teased its upcoming successor to the Oculus Quest 2, due out sometime next year. Project Cambria will be significantly more expensive than Quest but will offer an enhanced mixed reality experience, with more complexity for face and eye tracking and high-resolution color video.

Snap released its Spectacles 3 glasses to developers last May, but has not yet announced when the fourth-generation augmented reality headgear will be available to the general public; At this point, it looks like this will happen in 2022. Smaller players like China’s Nreal are already producing lightweight, smartphone-powered mixed reality glasses, and more are expected.

But, as usual, all eyes remain on Cupertino. With the abundance of information already available about the yet-to-be-acknowledged Apple XR hardware, it mostly comes down to when this will happen. Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s legendary forecaster, has predicted that the company will launch a mixed reality helmet in mid-2022, with a more elegant pair of augmented reality glasses in 2025.

ABI Research is betting that 2023 will become the year we all begin to live by default.

“Simply put, as soon as Apple launches its augmented reality glasses device into the mass market, the market will take off,” Abbruzzese says.

2. WebXR: democratizing the metaverse

The main drawback to mass adoption of AR and XR technologies is the lack of cross-platform standards. Until all headgear and virtual environments adopt a common technology, the metaverse will remain a series of walled gardens. This creates an opportunity for web-based virtual environments to fill the void, notes Linda Ricci, a technology strategist specializing in AR and VR.

“WebXR advances the democratization of access, can reduce the digital divide, and become the training wheels for virtual reality,” she notes. “Accessed via a headset or a browser, WebXR allows anyone to jump into a VR experience or bring augmented reality into their world via a URL — no apps needed.”

This, in turn, will be attractive to brands who want an easy way to bring virtual experiences to life without making a huge investment in new technology.

“I think we’ll see online stores with WebXR or fully immersive components launched in 2022,” adds Ritchie. “The only real barrier to adoption is awareness, and that’s changing fast.”

3. Augmented Reality (AR) in Cars: Defend the Distraction

One day, the future may be so bright we’ll need to wear shades of XR. Until then, the way most humans will experience augmented reality over the next few years will likely be inside their cars.

Last April, Mercedes unveiled an advanced Head-Up Display inside its 2021 EQS electric sedan. In addition to displaying the vehicle’s speed and direction on the windshield, the EQS’s AR HUD also displays the distance from the vehicle in front of you, and alerts you if the vehicle deviates from its lane. And when you approach an intersection, it signals when you reach your destination. Audi, BMW, Kia, and several other automakers plan to release similar AR technology on their 2022 models.

“Over the next two or three years, you’ll see AR elements on individual displays from most automakers,” says Grant Vick, CEO of TRED, a peer-to-peer used car marketplace. “It will be the way all the self-driving technology that is being integrated into cars communicate with humans, which will eventually help us trust the car to drive itself.”

4. Enhanced Industry: The Next Leap

While consumer applications of augmented reality and virtual reality get all the buzz, industrial and institutional uses will continue to bring bacon home in 2022. ABI predicts that enterprise adoption of augmented reality will grow 66 percent annually through 2026, bringing the total market size to $175 billion. Immersive collaboration platforms like Virbela and VRtuoso, which have been boosted by the need to enable remote work due to COVID-19, will continue to gain traction next year, Abbruzzese says, bringing the metaverse even closer to the workplace.

After spending $3 billion trying to create a consumer-friendly XR device, Magic Leap has reinvented itself as a corporate company and plans to launch a new industrial headset sometime next year.

Cloud-native applications that deal with processing and computing will allow the development of lighter devices with longer battery life, notes Dejam Panegrahi, COO of GridRaster, a provider of cloud-based XR platforms for industry and the military. This will get an extra boost as low-latency 5G connections become more prevalent, bringing computing power closer to end users, he adds.

“In 2022, we’ll see more comfortable and easy-to-wear glasses because we don’t have to worry about where the computing comes from,” says Banegrahi. “This means that more people will be introduced to augmented reality and virtual reality, primarily in the work environment.”

5. BUY HERE NOW: The Rise of Social Media + Shopping

The try-before-buy revolution will grow even more in 2022, powered in large part by augmented reality (AR). Amazon, Home Depot, Sephora, and Warby Parker are just some of the brands that offer virtual experiences at home via mobile apps. Interactive mirrors in stores like H&M and Ralph Lauren help consumers visualize purchases and get feedback from friends from afar before breaking down the plastic.

Enhanced shopping is expected to grow nearly 50 percent annually through 2027, according to Grandview research. No wonder. According to Shopify, digital interactions with products that contain 3D or AR content have a 94 percent higher conversion rate .

“Retail is a promising vertical area of ​​early consumer augmented reality activity, and we’ve seen the potential of this with several AR retail integrations for virtual experience, cosmetics, furniture, and more,” Abbruzzese says. “Apple’s ongoing Shopify integration is another example of their willingness to ramp up augmented reality.”

And as augmented reality apps become more popular, they’ll also get more social media, notes Hunter Rice, founder of sendit, an AR app that integrates with Snapchat and allows people to share new selfie filters via social media.

“As all the great technologies evolve, they are inherently more social,” says Rice. “In the next few years, we will start to see more products pushing the boundaries of social interactions within AR. AR filters will be less modern, and they will be more like powerful apps that have ongoing value.”

Marxent is the leading provider of 3D services to the home segments trusted by global retailers including Macy’s, B&Q and Lowe’s. With over ten years of experience, Marxent specializes in 3D, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality solutions for furniture and home improvement. From WebAR OnDemand for configurable products to our latest 360-degree panoramas, Marxent products powered by 3D Cloud™ are the future of results-driven technology.