In a newly published whitepaper, Juniper Research found that the global value of the mobile mixed reality market will exceed $43 billion by 2024, rising from $8 billion in 2019. Mixed reality overlays interactive digital images and videos onto the real world through a smartphone, tablet or smart glasses.

Among Juniper Research’s key findings:
• Juniper Research has identified 5G networks and edge computing as two key emerging technologies that will accelerate the development of mixed reality services in 2020.

• Smart glasses vendors must incorporate hardware to enable 5G and edge computing capabilities. Enhanced content and services enabled by these technologies will usher in the second wave of smart glasses adoption by increasing the end users’ capabilities.

• Leveraging cloud computing capabilities to deliver high-value mixed reality content is crucial to future success. Migrating processing power to the cloud would enable device vendors to reduce device sizes and minimize the social cost of public device use. Mobile games and multimedia apps categories will benefit most over the next 5 years, accounting for 67 percent of all smart glasses apps by 2024.

• 75 percent of consumer mixed reality will be attributable to smartphone apps by 2024. The immediate base of nearly 6 billion smartphone users combined with established content distribution, in the form of app stores, will drive content development towards smartphone devices.