The use of augmented reality (AR) in mobile devices is set to surge in the battle for smartphone market share.
According to analyst firm, Telsyte, Australian smartphone sales are on track for a strong calendar year. In its new Australian Smartphone and Wearable Devices Market Study 2017-2021, showed 4.4 million smartphones were sold during the first half of 2017, up 16 per cent on the same time last year.
For now, Android smartphones were holding the top spot with 55 per cent market share across its top three vendors Samsung, Huawei and Oppo.
The release of at least three new iPhones this year and maintaining lower price points on older models, will see Apple emerge as the market leader in the second half, the analyst firm indicated. About 4.7 million smartphones are expected to be sold during the second half of 2017.
Aging handsets, aggressive marketing and larger data cap offers from mobile service providers, along with the fact that about one million active iPhone users that won’t get the latest iOS 11 update, are just some of the factors that will see pent up demand for the iPhone.
Another contributing factor is some of the new features in AR as well as artificial intelligence capabilities.
Already, one in three Australian smartphone users have tried AR type features on their smartphones such as Pokemon Go, Snapchat and Facebook photo filters. This is setting the pace for these two categories - social and gaming - as the most popular for AR. Navigation, education, shopping/retail and communications will also attract early interest from app developers, the study said.
Telsyte senior analyst Alvin Lee, said the release of Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore will support more advanced AR applications, driving awareness and usage, which could rapidly expand in 2018.
More than half of iPhones are capable of supporting Apple’s current ARKit, compared to less than 10 per cent of android smartphones for Google’s ARCore.
Apple will be holding its product launch on September 12, expecting to reveal its next iPhone and an updated Apple Watch.
In a bid to ramp up its share in the smartphone market, Huawei recently aired its intentions to use AI features when its new flagship phone, Mate 10, launches next month.
