16 July 2019
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Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner Program Summit 2019 in Las Vegas
This time the annual meeting of the rather exclusive, yet rapidly expanding, circle of Microsoft’s partner companies in the field of Mixed Reality took place in the highly enriched reality of The Venetian in Las Vegas. Apart from the aesthetic aspects, which ladies and gentlemen do not discuss, I think it is worth paying attention to the content that all partners have developed during the day full of presentations and working meetings.
Here are some conclusions from my perspective, I hope useful for those who are adopting or are considering adoption of MR / AR / VR technology (and all other names would we not come up with):
- With the development of new devices ( HoloLens 2 in particular, of course) and cross-platform solutions (Microsoft technologies compatible to ARCore), the share of mixed reality in the markets is changing in favor of the still dominant VR solutions. Microsoft predicts that by 2025 MR products and services will account for +/- 75% of the market, compared to around 20% share today. So yes – it is high time to go in to get into it – in two years it will be much more difficult to innovate and disrupt and global products are to be taking over!
- Microsoft has taken action to implement a natural development path for MR technologies – that is, simplifying and enabling the creation of solutions based on communication with devices and systems. It seems to me that Azure Kinect DK has a chance to be the first tool that can actually add value to existing applications, for example in the field of ergonomics research (I am talking about my field, of course, i.e. industry).
- Boston’s PTC was named The Partner of the Year in the field of manufacturing. It’ s a company that consistently implements and improves solutions, the essence of which is communication between men, IT systems and machinery using Mixed / augmented / assisted reality. This is an important notification for the industry: additional realities are a rapidly growing branch of business rather than temporary fashion. And the coming years are the period when massive adoption of solutions will begin. Indication of a partner specializing in MR is also a sign that Microsoft still focuses primarily on the expertise of partners, although in the meantime it is also developing its own offer (I mean Dynamics 365, of course).
- Of course, at the strategic level, MR is primarily a tool for the utilization of cloud solutions – one that will effectively convince large and medium-sized companies to adopt a cloud. And let’s be happy with it – because IIoT and MR is a beautiful and only partially discovered area, where enormous amounts of work is to be done and surprises awaits and my impression is that vast majority of the outcome is going to be strikingly positive .