Where VR failed, AR will succeed
A few years back, I remember the excitement surrounding ‘Second Life’, in how people could even make money. Like a few Generation X’s, I jumped on it, only to be disappointed. So how will AR be any different?
Before I go any further, for those uninitiated, VR stands for Virtual Reality, which is a computer generated environment we can interact with. AR stands for Augmented Reality, which has interactive layers on top of our existing real world environment. Think of AR as looking at your real world environment, but overlayed on top are digital billboards, digital buildings and even digital people, that without AR don’t exist to anyone else but the person viewing the AR.
VR was and still is exciting. It’s ability to generate an environment not even thought possible in this real world, creates a sense of magic. It brought to us new worlds to interact and engage with. It spurred on billion dollar industries and continues to do so.
The greatest challenge it has, is provide real world monetisation that has long term sustainability. At the end of the day, people at this stage anyways, still need to engage with the real world and thereby that’s where their money is spent for most parts.
Where AR has a distinct advantage is providing all that wonder of VR, but brought into our world, is the ability to change our environment to something that uniquely suits our tastes and desires, whilst still allowing ourselves to operate in the world. It will open Pandora’s box.
Can you image the unlimited potential of targeting people to the individual level of their preferences, information that they can control and interact with in their real lives?
Here is one example, can you imagine all the TV ads suddenly being targeted to each individual watching it, determined on what ads they are willing to see? Right now, you place a single ad in a single time slot. This covers whomever is watching, so if a family of 5 are watching the TV, they will all see the same ad. Mass broadcast has its value, but being able to target specific people with a message that have expressed interest in, will revolutionise how we see advertising into the future.
