Augmented Reality (AR) is confidently at the precipice of mass market ubiquity. This has been an expected outcome for years, but barriers in price, hardware and software maturity, ease of use, and, ultimately, end-user value have held it back. However, in today's augmented reality market, more activity and tangible products are in place than ever before, and from established names. To provide you with a  better understanding of this growing market, we’ve compiled 7 augmented reality charts to tell the story of these immersive technologies.

The necessity of safety standards for industrial robots has never been more apparent. Industrial robot systems are increasingly more common in manufacturing and logistics applications. By 2030, ABI Research expects nearly twice as many annual industrial robot shipments as in 2022—increasing from 436,000 units to 815,000 units.

According to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association’s (GSMA) The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2022 report, 5% of the world’s population, or 400 million people, still do not have access to a mobile broadband network. The key to bridging this digital divide is Satellite Communications (SatCom) service providers, who provide Internet access to historically unserved and underserved regions (e.g., rural areas and developing countries) via satellite constellations in space.

Momentum for the metaverse continues to grow. A recent article on hospitalitynet cited some interesting survey results. The findings indicated that 82% of U.S. enterprise executives expect to incorporate metaverse applications into their business activities and plans within the next three years, while half of consumers feel excited about this virtual space. The opportunities are extensive, for everything from gaming to e-commerce, and from industrial digital twins to customer care. To make these immersive experiences all possible, there are six underlying technology pillars powering the metaverse:

By 2027, ABI Research forecasts the installed base of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled cameras to be 976.4 million, signaling a growing need for machine vision technologies. Today’s companies offering machine vision solutions are vital to the betterment of a number of applications, encompassing manufacturing, smart cities, building development, public safety, logistics, and transportation. An abundance of modern Machine Learning (ML)-based software products are embedded with edge ML capabilities that vastly improve a wide range of use cases, notably image-based inspection. This means a robotic system with an installed camera stacks pallets correctly or a flaw on a product's surface can be detected. To give you a better idea of how these systems work and who is providing them, this post highlights eight machine vision software companies that are helping enterprise customers work more efficiently.

As showcased at eco-centric conventions like the recently held COP27 Summit, there’s a sense of urgency for sustainable banking to address concerns about climate change. This has forced financial institutions to increasingly feel the pressure to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

Consumers are showing a growing preference for contactless payments, which is pushing many regions toward a cashless economy. For example, Pew Research Center notes that 4 in 10 Americans (41%) have stopped using physical cash for weekly purchases, which is nearly double the number in 2015. Not only would a cash-free society make everyday transactions a lot easier for consumers, but it is also bound to reshape the banking and financial services space. As confirmation that the world is migrating to digital-first payments, consider that the global mobile wallet installed base will increase by 2 billion in just 5 years—climbing to a total installed base of 5.6 billion by 2027, according to ABI Research.

Connectivity is becoming central to almost every aspect of our lives. It has radically changed our lifestyle, enhanced our productivity, transformed the way we work and do business, and reduced the digital divide between developed and developing countries. As a result, demand for telecommunication technologies has exploded, touching almost every node of the infrastructure from the long haul to access networks, such as fixed broadband.

Europe, being one of the most developed and affluent regions in the world, will play a key role in the widespread 5G rollout. Europe is at the forefront of smart cities, campus lab testing, sustainability, and telecommunications innovation, not to mention the consumers, manufacturers, and various industrial enterprises that seek an improved mobile experience and/or must run automated systems on a private network. Each of these applications, among many others, will use 5G coverage as the backbone for myriad use cases.

The Communication Service Providers (CSPs) of today either have their eye on or have already begun the process of virtualizing their networks. This comes in the form of Network Function Virtualization (NFV), notably Cloud-native Network Functions (CNFs). The responsibilities of traditional hardware network assets provided by Network Equipment Vendors (NEVs) are increasingly being carried out through software, which improves Time to Market (TTM). To fill this growing market need, public cloud service providers have come forward to help virtualize 4G/5G networks all around the world. The public cloud not only provides improved deployment flexibility, but also affordable “pay-as-you-go” pricing models based on microservice applications. While jumping straight into the public cloud may be practical for some newcomers (greenfield operators) or industry disruptors like DISH, the traditional CSP should still view private on-premises deployment as a proven telco cloud strategy because it delivers on performance, cost, and security. Indeed, in the near term, 5G Core (5GC) network workloads will likely be hosted in on-premises cloud stacks.