ABI Research says General Electric and DHL have gained from the deployment of Augmented Reality (AR) glasses during their trials.
The deployment of AR glasses can reduce travel costs and optimize resources by resolving issues with AR’s real-time remote support that enables communication with remote colleagues, and displays all relevant information like guidelines, and check lists in the field of view.
DHL Supply Chain has observed that its average productivity has improved by at least 15 percent after the deployment of AR glasses. DHL will expand AR solutions across different industry sectors. DHL Supply Chain earlier completed smart glass trials in numerous pilot sites across the U.S., mainland Europe, the UK, and the Netherlands.
DHL has partnered with hardware companies including Vuzix (M100 and M300 Smart Glasses) and Google, along with software provider Ubimax, for their AR logistics solutions.
General Electric achieved 46 percent performance increase using smart glasses on Upskill’s Skylight platform in warehousing and logistics.
“More universal AR use cases, including maintenance and repair, training, and navigation, can be incredibly useful in various parts of the logistic market,” said Eric Abbruzzese, principal analyst at ABI Research.
ABI Research said the main concerns for the early adopters of AR include device comfort, battery, usability, and robustness.
Logistics will account for 24 percent of Augmented Reality (AR) glasses shipments in 2017, according to ABI Research.
The shipments of smart glasses for logistics are expected to generate revenue of $4.4 billion in 2022 from $52.9 million in 2017.
“AR smart glasses pick-by-vision capability frees workers’ hands of traditional paper lists and picking instructions and enables them to work comfortably, safely, and efficiently in warehouses. AR streamlines the work process, and in turn offers compelling ROI to adopters through reduced errors and higher efficiency,” said Marina Lu, senior analyst at ABI Research.
IT market research agency IDC says the combined augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset market will reach 13.7 million units in 2017, growing to 81.2 million units by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.1 percent.
VR headsets will account for more than 90 percent of the market until 2019 while AR will account for the rest.
“AR headsets are also on track to account for over $30 billion in revenue by 2021, almost twice that of VR, as most of the AR headsets will carry much higher average selling prices with earlier adopters being the commercial segment,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers.
IDC said most consumers will experience AR on mobile devices, though it’s only a matter of time before Apple’s ARKit- and Google’s ARCore-enabled apps make their way into consumer grade headsets.
