How can we increase AR awareness & adoption and what does the future look like?
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Immersive technologies such as Augmented reality (AR) Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) which collectively come under the umbrella of – keep up with me here – Extended Reality (XR) are being used by an increasing number of companies to build consumer engagement and enhance the customer experience.

For those few who have crossed the threshold and are creating working AR projects to drive business engagement, questions still remain about overall adoption, increasing awareness and measuring ROI
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As with any novel, yet undoubtedly powerful technology, businesses are scrambling to maximize its revenue-creating potential, incentivized by the prospect of developing the much-vaunted ‘killer app’. Accordingly, many benefits of AR as a means to increase consumer engagement have become apparent in recent years; consumer marketing can be drastically enhanced, being rendered immersive, exciting and personalized, while the ability to monitor engagement data in real-time offers the possibility of refining the customer journey to increase enjoyment of an experience and maximize customer engagement with the brand.

As with any novel, yet undoubtedly powerful technology, businesses are scrambling to maximize the revenue-creating potential of XR
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Despite initial success, for those few who have crossed the threshold and are creating working AR projects to drive business engagement, questions still remain about overall adoption, increasing awareness and measuring ROI in a challenging environment where online offline commerce channels are blending into one another and customers are increasingly demanding omnichannel experiences.

VR Intelligence are hosting a live webinar, ‘AR for Consumer Engagement & Retail – From Fun Feature to Daily Essential’ on August 14
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To explore this and more, VR Intelligence are hosting a live webinar, ‘AR for Consumer Engagement & Retail – From Fun Feature to Daily Essential’, taking place Wednesday, August 14, 9:00am PT/12:00pm ET/5:00pm BST. We will be joined by Michael Haddad (Augmented Beauty US Director, L’Oréal), Jasper Krog (Senior Global Digital Innovation Manager, NIVEA), Max Andaker (Digital Innovation Manager, Nestlé Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost), Cathy Hackl (Enterprise Director, Magic Leap) and Terry Schussler, Director, Immersive Technology, Deutsche Telekom).

Register for this webinar to explore the following:

• A glance at the current state of phone-based AR content and implications for industry growth
• Why is retail a leading segment? What opportunities and challenges still exist for retailers?
• Where are consumers using AR now, and how will they look to use it going forward? What impact will 5G have?
• How are both phone-based and wearable device OEMs looking to capitalize? What tech improvements are needed for improved UX?
• How can we increase AR awareness & adoption and what does the future look like?

Those who cannot join live will be sent the recordings once the webinar has run.

This webinar is being run in association with VR Intelligence’s upcoming VRX Conference & Expo, taking place December 12-13, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel. Expecting more than 600 senior attendees from across gaming, entertainment, healthcare, retail, automotive industries and more, VRX is the world’s premier B2B immersive tech event for those wishing to use XR to boost ROI, propel their business forward and engage consumers through immersive, innovative experiences.

Tech Trends is an official media partner of VRX 2019

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Extending Retail appeared first on Tech Trends.

We’ll be dropping by Silicon Valley next month for Google I/O to check out the latest scoop from the Big G.

May is shaping up to be one heck of a busy month for Tech Trends
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May is shaping up to be one heck of a busy month for Tech Trends, making us wish that we were already in a sort of post-OASIS world where we could virtually teleport ourselves to all the cool events we get invited to.

We’re jetting off from Heathrow to the US West Coast, stopping by Seattle to cover Microsoft Build before heading to the Bay Area for Google’s flagship developer conference in Mountain View
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Instead, we’re boarding a good old-fashioned flying machine from Heathrow to the US West Coast – first stopping by Seattle to cover Microsoft Build – before heading off to the Bay Area for Google’s flagship developer conference in Mountain View, Google I/O.

If the highlights from last year are anything to go on, it should be good fun…

As taxing as all this conference-hopping might be for one’s travel schedule, it will be interesting to compare and contrast the strategies of these two major tech players, specially where it comes to our pet beat – Immersive technologies. In my view I believe Microsoft has done a really good job of developing and cornering the enterprise market for their top-end Mixed Reality product with the HoloLens (I know I keep saying it, but I’m REALLY excited to see what they pull out of the bag for the next gen there) and I also think they’ve got a pretty good shot of making inroads with the tricky consumer side of things with their more affordable, comfortable, and user-friendly Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

It will be interesting to contrast the latest strategy from Microsoft and Google, specially around Immersive Tech
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Yet it’s pretty impossible to rule Google out of that race, and we’re hoping to see some significant developments around Daydream, and/or maybe something completely different. Would be nice to be wowed.

We’re hoping to see some significant developments around Daydream, and/or maybe (to quote Monty Python) something completely different...
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But it would also be great to get more of a sense from Google of a strategy around, for example, using this type of technology in Education. They pioneered some interesting stuff with Google Expeditions but where do they go next?

Perhaps the answers await in Mountain View, we’ll keep you posted!

This year’s Google developer festival will be held May 8-10 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. You can join in the action via livestream.

The two Keynotes and all Sessions will be livestreamed on the event website’s homepage during the three days of the festival. If you’re busy at work or on the other side of the planet with a tricky time difference, you can watch the session recordings later on the Google Developers YouTube channel.

This year’s Google developer festival will be held May 8-10 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA
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And of course you can stay tuned right here and on our social media feeds – Follow @techtrends_tech for all the latest, and if you’re going to be over there and fancy saying hi, feel free to tweet us with the hashtag #io18

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Tech Trends at #io18 appeared first on Tech Trends.

Everything you always wanted to know about Silicon Valley’s most controversial success story, but were afraid to ask…

The handy infographic below lays it all out. For example, did you know that Uber received $22.2B in 19 rounds from 90 investors, and that if you’d had the foresight to invest a mere $20k in the company’s angel round, that investment would have been worth $40M in 2014? Currently the company has over 7 Milllion drivers and over 50 Million riders.

If you had invested $20k in Uber's angel round you'd have $40M in 2014
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Places where Uber is currently banned

• Bulgaria
• Denmark
• Italy
• Hungary
• Austin, Texas
• Alaska
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• China
• Taiwan
• Northern Australia

Uber is banned in China, Taiwan, Italy, Alaska, Vancouver and Denmark
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Top 5 Cities Using Uber

• Washington D.C.
• Boston
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Atlanta

Uber would have to pay $4.1B if drivers were employees
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Uber Drivers

• 14% of Uber drivers are female.
• 71% of Uber drivers have family at home.
• 51% of Uber drivers only work 15 hours or less per week.
• 74% of driver-partners have a full-time or part-time job outside of Uber.
• Uber would have to pay $4.1B if drivers were employees.

Top cities using Uber include Boston, San Francisco and Seattle
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Rides Statistic

• 5B trips have been taken.
• 289K rides per day in New York
• 4B rides in 2017

14% of Uber drivers are female
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Uber Accusations

• Uber denied fault in S.F. crash that killed a girl in 2014
• Uber driver was accused of sexual assault in China in 2015
• Uber driver was accused of raping a customer in NJ in 2015
• Carolina Uber driver was accused of kidnapping and raping a female passenger in 2015
• Uber driver was accused of rape in New Delhi and convicted by Indian Court in 2015
• Chicago Uber driver was charged with criminal sexual abuse of a passenger in 2014
• Uber driver was accused of ignoring warning signs and attacking a passenger in the USA in 2017
• Uber driver ‘sexually assaulted a woman’ and told her to ‘stay in the car’ in South London in 2017
• Uber was accused of espionage, hacking and bribery in bombshell letter in 2017
• Uber Legal Hurdles amount to at least 173 U.S. Lawsuits in 2015.

Uber will launch its first test run for a flying car in Dallas and Los Angeles
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Interesting Facts

• Uber expects to launch its first test run for a flying car in 2020 in Dallas and Los Angeles.
• Uber operates in 76 countries and 450 cities worldwide.
• Uber has vowed to get at least 1M female drivers on the app globally by 2020.
• If you combine all Uber trips in the past 5 years, the total distance is just over a round trip to Saturn.
• Travis Kalanick and Mark Zuckerberg have actually been friends for a while. Kalanich took Mark Zuckerberg out to a NYC club after his first meeting with Sean Parker, as documented in “The Social Network”.

Uber has vowed to get 1M female drivers on the app globally by 2020
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasioon Twitter.

The post Infographic: Key Facts about Uber appeared first on Tech Trends.