Consumers expect AR and VR to merge with reality

Monday 03 July 2017

Dubai – MENA Herald: Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has published its latest ConsumerLab report–Merged Reality– revealing insights intohow consumers expect virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to merge with physical reality, and that 5G will be a key technology for such experiences to become mainstream.

The report reveals that when boundaries between people’s perception ofphysical and virtual reality start to blur, this could result in adrastic impact on lives and society. The way we live, work, andconsume information and media will fundamentally change.

Realities will not merge if the user is tethered to a computeror cut off from physical reality.Early adopters of VR/AR expectnext-generation networks like 5G to play a central role. Thirty-six percent have expectations on 5G to provide VR/ARmobility through a stable, fast and high-bandwidth network. Thirty percent of early adopters also expect 5G to enabletetheredheadsets to become wireless.

Key findings of the latest report include that 7 out of 10 early adopters expect VR/AR to changeeveryday life fundamentally in six domains: media, education, work, social interaction, travel and retail. Media is already being transformed and consumersexpect virtual screens to start replacing televisionsand theaters in less than a year.

The qualitative research in the report included an innovativefocusgroup discussion series completely in VR with participants from North America and Europe, as well as traditional focus groups with current users of VR from Japanand South Korea. A series of qualitative VR tests with 20 Ericssonemployees were also done to understand how lag in VR can trigger nausea.

In the quantitative part of the study, the report presents insights from a survey of 9,200 consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, SouthKorea, Spain, the UK and the US,aged between 15-69 with awareness of the concept of VR.

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