Eric Abbruzzese

ABI research director Eric Abbruzzese spoke to Manufacturers Monthly about the rising adoption of Extended Reality (XR) technology among manufacturers.

“The value of XR to organizations has been known for years, especially in areas like training, remote workforce enablement and collaboration,” explains Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research. “However, the barriers to that value have also been well-known and remain. Device cost, integration concerns and confusion around offerings are most common.”

“If Private Cloud Compute is true to its word, it’s a nice effort and one that differentiates Apple pretty well,” Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research, a technology advisory company headquartered in Oyster Bay, N.Y., told TechNewsWorld. Vena was impressed with Apple’s care in building the privacy foundation for Apple Intelligence during the presentation. “If you look at all the usage models that they demonstrated, they have to have access to emails and text messages, so it was important to convince people that privacy is at the core of the way they’re approaching AI,” he said.

VR is similarly aiding the fitness and well-being space, said Eric Abbruzzese, who as a research director with ABI Research leads the firm's study of AR, VR and MR. Abbruzzese explained that VR can help relieve loneliness, sharpen mental acuity and reduce isolation by providing therapeutic programming, engaging content and interactions with others that may not be easily scheduled in the real world.

“It’s a byproduct of being a new ecosystem and storefront,” said Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm. “The App Store around the iPhone’s launch and growth was almost entirely free versus paid,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Subscriptions were pushed in recent years as a way for both developers and Apple to grow service revenues.” “Also,” he added, “fewer customers will be willing to subscribe to an app on an entirely new platform. As an understanding of Vision Pro and its capabilities solidifies and users develop usage habits, longer-term monetization options are more viable. Few will be willing to subscribe to an app before they have developed habits and preferences with Vision Pro.”

But considering CES 2024 was the first large-scale tech convention since the surge around AI last year, Eric Abbruzzese — a director at market research firm ABI Research — said “it’s no surprise AI was everywhere.” He expects AI to dominate the tech world conversation not only throughout the rest of the year but beyond. One caveat, however, is how the AI space will adapt to potential regulations, as government bodies and the White House aim to address the rapidly evolving technology. “Should a regulation tamp down on AI growth in the name of privacy, security or if a big negative news event ties back to AI, then companies will work to shift messaging away – at least somewhat – from AI,” Abbruzzese said. “Even if their product is still using AI, the ultra-focused AI marketing may diminish.”

“The current market zeitgeist around AI has bled significantly into manufacturing markets, but its deployment will be held back by a staunch lack of trust amongst operators and calls for comprehensive and provable use cases. This is particularly the case for functionality associated with quality management processes and QMS software, due to an entrenched resistance to change and concern around giving up control of processes,” says ABI research industry analyst James Prestwood.

"Outside of price, the largest question around consumer smart glasses is valuable use cases,” AR/VR Research Director at ABI Research, Eric Abbruzzese said. “Notifications, stat/fitness tracking, hands-free digital assistant, navigation, etc., with the addition of media capture/social media and some more visual capabilities [are all useful],” he said.

But the technology – and demand for it – remain unproven. While Apple has been working behind closed doors on Vision Pro for years, other companies’ headsets have seen only limited uptake, according to Eric Abbruzzese, a director at ABI Research. For example, Meta’s Quest 2 is the most successful headset by “a significant margin” — about 20 million units shipped in its lifetime, he said. In comparison, the iPad line has averaged between 10 million and 15 million shipments each quarter for years. (The Apple Watch does similar numbers). “Vision Pro is perhaps most comparable to the iPhone launch — competition existed, and Apple knew the first generation was not going to be a smashing success, but the roadmap for the device improving over time and becoming more accessible was the ultimate goal,” Abbruzzese said. “Vision Pro will not shift millions of units, but it has the potential to define the product category (mixed reality headsets) for the market.”

Eric Abbruzzese, director at ABI Research, said it’s not unusual for companies to raise prices, with many citing inflation as a primary reason for the change. The $10 monthly cost is less than the average for similar services that include 4K video without ads, especially compared to the larger competitors in Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. “It seems the Apple service favors quality over quantity,” he said. “A number of its TV exclusive programming is multi-award winning. … Subscriber growth estimates point to it growing quicker than most competition as well.”

According to a new report by ABI Research, the industrial XR market will reach $60 billion in total revenue by the end of this decade. Eric Abbruzzese, the research director behind the company that published the report, explains the benefits of using the emerging technology: “XR training deployments show significant improvements in key performance metrics like retention and repeat training while also improving user experience and satisfaction with the content.”

Eric Abbruzzese, the research director behind the company that published the report, explains the benefits of using the emerging technology:

The global industrial extended reality (XR) market is expected to reach $60 billion by 2030, findings from ABI Research revealed this week. ABI’s Enterprise and Industrial XR Training report found that enterprises have been increasingly tapping virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) devices over the last five years. Analysts predict that more than 16 million industrial XR devices will ship in 2027 at current adoption rates. Figures cited major use cases for device implementation, such as training, workflow instruction, and remote guidance. The former has remained a major vertical for enterprise XR adoption, driving most of the growth in the industry. Additionally, this is expected to create over $60 billion USD in global revenue by 2030, with XR training and instruction topping the list. Comments on Industrial XR Growth Eric Abbruzzese, Research Director, ABI Research, explained that training had become “the latest focus for enterprises.” He added that further use cases like workflow instruction and remote assistance were driving mass adoption of immersive technologies across enterprises.

$3,500 is a tough pill to swallow for anybody. It creates a difficult go-to market. But Apple is very good at delivering unique content in a very seamless way.

“The enterprise market is excited for a new headset competitor, especially one that likely brings strong developer and content support along with it,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research direction at market research firm ABI Research who focuses on AR and VR. “So it is great timing for that market.”

Eric Abbruzzese, AR/VR analyst from ABI Research, says that conversations about AR/VR no longer revolve around pilot use cases and experimentation. During a panel he moderated at the Augmented Enterprise Summit in October 2022, companies like Airbus, Dow and Bristol Meyers Squibb spoke about scaling up the technology. “It’s like talking about ‘digital twin.’ Digital twin is not a single-point solution. Digital twin is a composition of capabilities, rather than a singular solution. ‘IIoT system,’ to me, is analogous to that,” says Ryan Martin, research director at ABI Research.

AR is projected to be an economic driver for the tech industry. Research shows that in 2020, the global augmented reality industry was valued at $17.67 billion. Forecasters project a compound annual growth rate of 43.8% through 2028. But which vertical markets will embrace this new technology? Industry experts such as Eric Abbruzzese, research analyst at ABI Research, say revenues will be split between a number of major verticals – education, gaming, healthcare, industrial and retail, to name a few.

"Something's not ready for primetime or the go-to market isn't there," said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at New York-based ABI Research, speculating on the reported dissent at Apple.

“Pico simply does not have the reach and established brand recognition that Meta has, especially globally,” Eric Abbruzzese, who leads research efforts in VR, augmented reality and mixed reality at ABI Research, told the Post in January.

Pico 4 and Quest Pro “are not likely to match the Quest 2’s success”, said Eric Abbruzzese, who leads research efforts in VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) at ABI Research. Total shipments of stand-alone VR devices last year reached 10.6 million, down from 13.6 million in 2021, and the Quest 2 accounted for more than 80 per cent, according to estimates from ABI Research. “For the Pico 4, Pico simply does not have the reach and established brand recognition that Meta has, especially globally”, Abbruzzese said. “The [Quest] Pro price point almost entirely removes the broad consumer market from the equation”.

Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research, said Apple could have success launching a VR headset geared toward businesses, which would likely help lure developers to the community. But the high price of an enterprise VR headset, which would likely retail for several thousand dollars, would still make it difficult for Apple to move the needle, Abbruzzese said.

According to Eric Abbruzzese, an analyst at ABI Research, the effort to open up access to its games shows Microsoft is “scrambling” to overcome regulatory hurdles. “If the offer helps the deal finalize, then that is a huge win that flies under the radar with ‘Call of Duty’ in the headlines,” he said. “But offering a single entity for a limited time would not be enough to circumvent regulation, as it is temporary and narrow in scope.”

“There are some transparent cases available from both first and third parties,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at market research firm ABI Research, “but at least anecdotally, they don’t seem as popular as regular cases.”

"Refinement over revolution isn't a bad thing but if purses are tightening with the economy then these announcements are a harder sell without anything groundbreaking," said Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at market firm ABI Research. The emphasis on health and safety could also help Apple bolster its subscription services business, Abbruzzese said, which has been one of its fastest-growing revenue lines in recent years. As he points out, the satellite connectivity is "only free for two years." (Apple has not specified how much it costs after that.) Moreover, "advanced health tools seem like just another way to sell Fitness+ more strongly."

"It's quite possible the company will tease new AR/VR features without outright revealing a new device," said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research. But, as he notes, it would be unusual for Apple to reveal a new software system for a hardware line it has yet to unveil. "It'd be like revealing iOS before the iPhone was revealed," Abbruzzese added.

"There isn't an industry that isn't thinking about [extended reality] right now," says Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research, which forecasts that more than 27 million enterprise smart glasses will be shipped by 2027, growing 63 percent year-over-year. In fact, shipments of headsets for commercial use are expected to grow at more than double the rate of those in the consumer sector this year, according to International Data Corp. It predicts shipment growth in the commercial sector will outpace increases in the consumer sector until 2026.

SHRM podcast with Eric Abbruzzese

Featuring Eric Abbruzzese page 20

With investment and interest growing exponentially, the augmented reality market is set to grow at an equally significant rate over the next five years. According to new research by global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, nearly 40 million Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses will ship in 2027, with the total augmented and mixed reality market surpassing $220 billion in the same year. Much of this growth will to stem from the consumer market on the back of new hardware and content, but the enterprise AR space will also continue to show strong growth. Eric Abbruzzese, ABI Research “It is impossible to miss news surrounding the augmented reality market today, both from the fascinating metaverse side and the more grounded and short-term augmented reality opportunities and investment,” says Eric Abbruzzese, Research Director at ABI Research. “Massive, far-reaching rebrands like Meta alongside more traditional new devices, software, and services from big names like Google and

“I don’t see this Helios specifically as a differentiator or core element of Verizon’s go-to-market,” Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research, told TelecomTV. He did note, however, that there is a chance for a similar game to become “a disruptor and a killer app.” “I’m particularly watching for what Niantic (Pokémon GO) does with all its new AR-focused investment. With a desirable IP similar to Pokémon, tied to 5G-ready phones and deeper AR integration and capability, there is a ripe opportunity for a telco to partner” with the gaming developer, Abbruzzese explained.

"If you're putting billions up front and not really expecting return for years, shareholders are going to be hesitant," ABI Research analyst Eric Abbruzzese said, referring to the metaverse costs.

According to a 2021 study by ABI Research, industrial workflows, including manufacturing, have started to reap the benefits of AR headsets. Analysts estimate companies have deployed more than 15 million AR glasses to workers who can use them to visually access information, collaborate with colleagues, and communicate what they’re seeing on the job.

“When I look at holographics, I don’t know that there is a huge market today or in the next couple of years,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research, which tracks the industry. “But I am excited to see the miniaturization of the technology. I think we’re seeing the first of that with an IKIN.”

“In enterprise it’s been worker and remote enablement that’s driven the AR market,” says Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research. “Remote assistance and training are consistently the top two use cases. [These offer] increased worker efficiency, and reduced downtime and travel. Integrating the worker with existing systems also adds value – for example having worker input through an AR device feed directly into an internet of things (IoT) platform and auto-update data, which can then be pushed to all workers.”

This aligns well with what Eric Abbruzzese, augmented and virtual reality research director at ABI Research, is seeing. “As a high-value element of digitization, AR adds a visual element to a data-heavy system that can sometimes devalue the human worker,” he noted. “AR brings the worker back into the equation and creates a synergistic relationship between worker and IT/OT systems, where each component benefits from the other.” According to ABI’s most recent findings, the industrial market will quicken its adoption of wearable technologies. This increasing adoption will generate an industrial augmented reality market value of $70 billion by 2025, ABI predicts.

Nearly 28 million augmented and mixed reality smart glasses will ship by 2026 — a 66 percent annual compound increase in sales — according to ABI Research. “Right now, the industries most likely to use head-mounted displays are manufacturing, energy and utilities, and logistics,” says Eric Abbruzzese, research director for AR and virtual reality at ABI Research. “These industries benefit most from hands-free content access to help with complex workflows.”

Article by Eric Abbruzzese

“Major tech players across hardware, software, and services look familiar in the consumer space, contributing to strong and consistent overall growth,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research director for ABI Research. Apple, Facebook, Google, Samsung, Huawei, Microsoft, and others are all already investing significantly in AR. “Those big tech names, with active investment and product ranging from already available, to announced, to all-but-announced, are creating a consumer AR market that will be dynamic and welcoming rather than struggling and immature.” Even though consumer hype dominates headlines, enterprise adoption of augmented reality continues at a respectable pace of 66 percent CAGR through 2026 (compared to 100 percent or greater CAGR for some consumer verticals). Early value shown in remote assistance, training, and knowledge capture skyrocketed alongside COVID, where remote worker enablement became a requirement rather than a value add. Not all that interest converted to adoption immediately, with some expected hesitancy around novel investment, but that interest is only strengthening even as the pandemic begins to wane. Enterprise AR platforms from the likes of PTC, Teamviewer, RE’FLEKT, and ScopeAR are both competing and cooperating with increased in-house efforts from companies entering the space with broader digitization efforts as well as more focused immersive goals. No matter the market, binocular and mixed-reality HMDs will be the headline in terms of growth rate, with nearly 130 percent CAGR for mixed reality glasses compared to 60 percent for augmented reality glasses. Declining prices, strengthened by fresh consumer hardware competition that needs to be affordable, along with greater competitive choice and software opportunity, make mixed reality solutions the more desirable offering on average. Some targeted use cases, especially around industrial verticals and applications, will remain focused on monocular products thanks to well-developed sales and implementation channels, safety and certification needs, and often simpler implementation and usage requirements. “Augmented reality has seen its share of ups and downs, but the combination of enterprise and consumer uptake, along with hardware support across smart glasses and mobile devices from heavy tech hitters and platform enablers, creates a compelling market picture overall,” Abbruzzese said. “Challenges in price and implementation remain, as do questions around ultimate value for new use cases for consumers, but early and ongoing investment in the space is addressing these challenges. This early market maturity keeps consumer promising, high value worker enablement maintains enterprise value, and so the outlook for AR is robust.” These findings are from ABI Research’s Augmented and Mixed Reality Market Data: Devices, Use Cases, Verticals, and Value Chain market data report. This is part of the company’s Augmented and Virtual Reality research service, which includes research, data, and analyst insights. Market Data spreadsheets are composed of deep data, market share analysis, and highly segmented, service-specific forecasts to provide detailed insight where opportunities lie.

Eric Abbruzzese, the AR and VR Research Director at tech advisory firm ABI Research told Wareable: “While it’s not ideal to distil an entire market down to one company, Apple truly will dictate how the AR market progresses.”

As a result, the industrial market will quicken its adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses and mobile devices to enable workers in any location and minimize costly inefficiencies. This increasing adoption will generate an industrial augmented reality market value of US$70 billion by 2025m according to ABI Research. “COVID-19 did not create the need for digitization, but it certainly accelerated it,” says Eric Abbruzzese, Augmented and Virtual Reality Research Director at ABI Research. “As a high-value element of digitization, augmented reality adds a visual element to a data-heavy system that can sometimes devalue the human worker. AR brings the worker back into the equation and creates a synergistic relationship between worker and IT/OT systems where each component benefits from the other.”

ABI Research estimates the augmented reality market will surpass $140 billion in 2025. That includes headset hardware, software and services. The market today is mostly enterprise-focused. Last year, the augmented reality headset market generated less than $10 billion in revenue. The Covid-19 pandemic has fueled interest in augmented reality headsets for remote assistance and training, Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research, told IBD. "Interest has skyrocketed," he said.

The world-wide total market value for augmented reality is expected to grow to $140 billion by 2025, up from about $10 billion last year, according to a report this month from tech market advisory firm Allied Business Intelligence Inc. Those figures include hardware, software and content, AR advertising, platforms and licensing, connectivity and much more. The hardware includes headsets such as Microsoft’s HoloLens, and Glass, made by Alphabet Inc.’s Google. For smart glasses alone, ABI said world-wide shipments last year totalled around 1.8 million units; it forecasts that will rise to 27 million in 2025. The expected growth is attributed partly to the lasting impacts of the pandemic over the next few years, said Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research.

It could be a breakout year for augmented reality hardware, said an ABI Research 2021 trends report, as Nreal and Mad Gaze expand their AR efforts, and Facebook is expected to debut its AR smart glasses from the Reality Labs initiative. Google could take another stab at smart glasses after buying North and facing pressure from Facebook and others, said analyst Eric Abbruzzese. Apple, a “wild card,” is expected to have a dedicated AR product launch in 2022.

The top use case for AR is in remote assistance, such as enabling an untrained worker to connect to an expert who is not onsite, says Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research. "That was true before the pandemic, and it's especially true today with almost no one on site. "You have instant access to that expertise and an increase in efficiencies in turnaround and getting that knowledge to that user,'' he says. If a complex piece of machinery stops working, that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in downtime. "Having instant access to an expert could reduce downtime from a day to a couple of hours."

In its new whitepaper, The 36 Transformative Technology Stats You Need to Know for 2021, global tech market advisory firm ABI Research highlights the lesser-known stats that illuminate the direction in which digital transformation is truly heading.

"Apple isn't directly competing in the cloud gaming space yet, but their Arcade product could be positioned there in the future, and they may be trying to keep competition away," Eric Abbruzzese, a senior analyst with ABI Research, told TechNewsWorld.

"There's been a bit of a lull with big game releases. Many are being delayed due to the pandemic," said Eric Abbruzzese, a senior analyst with ABI Research. "We do show a plateau and decline in current generation game console shipments as purchasers wait for the next generation to launch," he told TechNewsWorld, "although that is not directly correlated to playtime generally."

According to Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research who tracks gaming platforms, gamification of any topic is effective if a user is actively interested. "Engagement is the make or break for any program like this," he said, noting most people are visual learners which works in favor of game-like learning programs. "Something dense like cybersecurity may have more issue in adapting content to a visual-first medium than something like biology," Abbruzzese said. But, he added, "a prolonged interest in the content and greater overall understanding ... can contribute to confidence and skill."

“In an ongoing quest to maintain students’ attention, new visualization and interaction tools are a natural fit,” says Eric Abbruzzese, principal analyst at ABI Research, in a press release for their “Augmented and Virtual Reality in Education” report. Yet many schools still face barriers to adopting immersive technology, such as high hardware costs, according to the ABI report. “Head-mounted experiences provide the most immersive experiences possible but can be challenging when it comes to price and implementation,” the report notes.

Abbruzzese reflects: “Quick returns in remote expertise and training drew lots of attention, but barriers were always high, even when partnering with integration specialists. Security, privacy, novel content creation and existing content adaptation, and just general user acceptance have all slowed things down.” But ABI Research also says the market for industrial AR will top $47 billion in the same five-year period (from around $7.5 billion), covering the gamut of activity from hardware and software to networking and processing. Logistics and manufacturing will lead the way, according to its forecast, contributing to around 11.7 million units (see bottom of page 3); the difference with the IDC forecast volume is significant, but both predict growth at scale. Anecdotally, a late-2019 poll of “every industrial vertical” by 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, confirms the surging interest: a third (35.5 percent) of industry has already deployed AR as part of IoT strategies, and half (51 percent) of th

"Automotive has become a centerpiece, and the fact that a relatively new market area for CES takes up an entire hall of the convention center says a lot about the value of the show, at least for those players," said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research.

Eric Abbruzzese, research director for augmented reality at ABI Research, said AR windshields — which completely replace traditional windshields in vehicles — are years off

According to a new study from ABI Research, the advancement in the live streaming market is being driven by demand for sports and other live programming. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% up to 2024.

Eric Abbruzzese, an analyst for market advisory firm ABI Research, said interest in AR technology has been rising in the business world, where it’s being used mostly to enhance employee training. While Polarity is a little different, he also sees its potential, particularly if the company decides to extend its technology to smart glasses and mobile phones. “They could be building a foundation that transitions very nicely into the market we cover,” he said.

"The second camera for depth should improve capture and the overall experience, if not add anything truly new," said Eric Abbruzzese, senior analyst at ABI Research, a technology advisory company headquartered in Oyster Bay, New York.

The numbers bear this out: according to data from tech market researcher ABI Research, 6.5 million consumer VR headsets shipped in 2018, and the market is set to grow to 10.5 million headsets shipped this year. Despite the projected growth, it's still a tiny number of VR devices when you think about it compared to, say, video game consoles, of which tens of millions are sold each year. "I think a lot of people see value in a VR arcade, something like that, a dedicated experience. The home's a different story," said ABI Research analyst Eric Abbruzzese.

“Content can be created to exact specifications and experienced in the exact same way every time,” says Eric Abbruzzese, a VR analyst at ABI Research, via email. "Everything is digital so parameters can be controlled to a near infinite level.” Abbruzzese, the ABI analyst, also notes that "not everyone can use VR,” because it can bring on nausea or motion sickness. And he says developers will have to create content for each type of test.

But the augmented-reality market is still small: Eric Abbruzzese, an augmented- and virtual-reality analyst with ABI Research, expects more than 2 million headsets and smart glasses will ship this year. Most of that market is made up of businesses still testing the technology. Abbruzzese predicts it will grow to 29 million by 2023. But Abbruzzese said Toyota's use of the HoloLens to measure paint thickness is a clear example of possible savings. "Toyota can then make a very informed decision about how well this can scale, and [determine] the return on investment," he said.