Tag Archives: Pokemon Go

How to Leverage AR to Boost Sales and Enhance the Retail Experience

The global market for VR and AR in retail will reach $1.6 billion by 2025 according to research conducted by Goldman Sachs. Even after years of growing popularity, effectively employed Augmented Reality experiences feel to the end-user about as explicitly futuristic as any experience created by popular technology.

We have covered the many applications for AR as an indoor positioning mechanism on the Mystic MediaTM blog, but when it comes to retail, applications for AR are providing real revenue boosts and increased conversion rates.

Augmented Reality (AR) History

Ivan Sutherland 1

While working as an associate professor at Harvard University, computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, aka the “Father of Computer Graphics”, created an AR head-mounted display system which constituted the first AR technology in 1968. In the proceeding decades, AR visual displays gained traction in universities, companies, and national agencies as a way to superimpose vital information on physical environments, showing great promise for applications for aviation, military, and industrial purposes.

Fast forward to 2016, the sensational launch of Pokemon GO changed the game for AR. Within one month, Pokemon GO reached 45 million users, showing there is mainstream demand for original and compelling AR experiences.

Cross-Promotions

Several big brands took advantage of Pokemon GO’s success through cross-promotions. McDonald’s paid for Niantic to turn 3,000 Japan locations into gyms and PokeStops, a partnership that has recently ended. Starbucks took advantage of Pokemon GO’s success as well by enabling certain locations to function as PokeStops and gyms, and offering a special Pokemon GO Frappucino.

One of the ways retailers can enter into the AR game without investing heavily in technology is to cross-promote with an existing application.

In 2018, Walmart launched a partnership with Jurassic World’s AR game: Jurassic World Alive. The game is similar to Pokemon GO, using a newly accessible Google Maps API to let players search for virtual dinosaurs and items on a map, as well as battle other players. Players can enter select Walmart locations to access exclusive items.

Digital-Physical Hybrid Experiences

The visual augmentation produced by AR transforms physical spaces by leveraging the power of computer-generated graphics, an aesthetic punch-up proven to increase foot traffic. While some retailers are capitalizing on these hybrid experiences through cross-promotions, others are creating their own hybrid experiential marketing events.

Foot Locker developed an AR app that used geolocation to create a scavenger hunt in Los Angeles, leading customers to the location where they could purchase a pair of LeBron 16 King Court Purple shoes. Within two hours of launching the app, the shoes sold out.

AR also has proven potential to help stores create hybrid experiences through indoor navigation. Users can access an augmented view of the store through their phones, which makes in-store navigation easy. Users scan visual markers, recognized by Apple’s ARKitGoogle’s ARCore, and other AR SDKs, to establish their position, and AR indoor navigation applications can offer specific directions to their desired product.

Help Consumers Make Informed Choices

Ikea Place Screenshots

AR is commonly employed to enrich consumers’ understanding of potential purchases and prompt them to buy. For example, the “IKEA Place” app allows shoppers to see IKEA products in a superimposed graphics environment. IKEA boasts the app gives shoppers 98% accuracy in buying decisions.

Converse employs a similar application, the “Converse Sampler App”, which enables users to view what a shoe will look like on their feet through their device’s camera. The application increases customer confidence, helping them make the decision to purchase.

Treasury Wines Estates enhances the consumer experience with “Living Wine Labels”: AR labels that bring the history of the vineyard to life and provide users with supplementary information, including the history of the vineyard the wine came from and tasting notes.

Conclusion

AR enables striking visuals that captivate customers. As a burgeoning tool, AR enables companies to get creative and build innovative experiences that capture their customers’ imagination. Retailers who leverage AR will seize an advantage both in the short term and in the long term as the technology continues to grow and evolve.

The Next Generation of Apple: What Does It Mean for App Development?

On September 7th, 2016, Apple announced their new line of products for the coming year. Per tradition, the company kept the audience on its feet with a flurry of new features and partnerships which can’t help but excite anyone interested in tech and mobile development. Given the bevy of announcements, here is a rundown of what’s important for app developers.

THE APPLE APP STORE REIGNS SUPREME

Tim Cook kicked the presentation off, reminding the audience of Apple dominance. The Apple App Store accrued 140 billion downloads in the year, a 106% year over year growth and more than double the global revenue of their closest competitor: the Google Play Store.

NINTENDO BRINGS MARIO TO THE MOST POPULAR GAMING DEVICE IN THE WORLD

Gaming is not only  the most popular category in the App Store, Apple devices are the most popular gaming devices in the world. Cook brought in perhaps the greatest game designer of all time: Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Star Fox and many more Nintendo classics) to introduce the new forthcoming Super Mario Run, the second Nintendo game on a mobile phone after Pokemon GO. Mr. Miyamoto emphasized the accessibility of the iOS platform and delineated gameplay mechanics which emphasize competitive, social-focused arcade modes in which you can challenge your friends’ high scores.

Apple later announced Pokemon GO is coming to the new Apple Watch Series 2. Pokemon GO has accrued over 500 million downloads and Pokemon Trainers have walked over 4.6 million kilometers playing the game. Pokemon GO for Apple Watch will emphasize allowing users to spend less time looking at their screen, and more time being social in their walks.

APPLE WATCH SERIES 2

Apple Watch Series 2 via TechRadar

Apple Watch became the #2 biggest selling watch brand in the world within a year of launch. The new Apple Watch Series 2 is waterproof and features apps which improve your golf swing, remind you to breathe and more. The emphasis from the trailer was on the Apple Watch as a fitness device for optimizing workout efficiency. Apple proclaimed the new Apple Watch as the ultimate device for a healthy life. Those in the fitness app development business are in luck as the Apple Watch opens up a ton of possibilities.

App developers will love the additional dual core processor, which is up to 50% faster than the previous Apple Watch, the new GPU 2x faster graphics performance, and the 2nd generation display with 1000 nits. The device offers all kinds of opportunities for internal apps and developers.

IOS 10

As of Tuesday September 13th, iOS 10 has officially been released. After a summer in beta, the new operating system is here with a smarter keyboard which cultivates contextual clues through machine learning to improve auto-correct, enhanced Continuity, and a smarter Siri. Best of all, iOS 10 opens up Siri, iMessage and Maps for app developers, allowing them to create app extensions which incorporate these tools. This means Siri can book your next Lyft, you can incorporate ePayments directly into iMessage, and you can make reservations at a restaurant directly through Maps. The ability to create app extensions on internal iPhone apps opens up a world of possibilities for app developers in designing both new and updating existing apps.

IPHONE 7 & 7 PLUS

iPhone 7 via 9to5mac.com

The reviews are in for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and they are impressive. While the screen size stays the same, the headphone jack is gone, and the camera is beefed up. iPhone 7+ features a dual camera system which allows for true 2x optical zoom without loss of image quality.

When it comes to graphics, the display is now 25% brighter with a wider color gamut. The new A10 fusion processor is 40% faster than the A9 and features a graphics processing chip that is 50% faster than the iPhone 6 counterpart. While it has increased processing power, it also has extended battery life – the longest battery life ever in an iPhone.

The possibilities for mobile game developers are endless, as seen in this demonstration by Heather Price, co-founder of ThisGameStudio:

HOMEKIT & IoT

Having made major strides in the phone, watch, TV, music streaming and soon original content areas, Apple is naturally moving toward the connected home. HomeKit is the first time home automation has been integrated with a major platform. HomeKit will allow users to adjust lights in their house, check on locked doors, open their garage and more. HomeKit will now accept virtually every major brand creating home automation devices, and it works on over 100 products coming to market.

Apple also made several announcements, including their educational investment in ConnectEd, introduction of real-time collaboration through iWork, a partnership with Nike with the Apple Watch Nike+, and more. With such a density of announcements, it’s an exciting time to be an iOS developer.