Market Reality: Sketchfab Opens AR Content Store, Amazon Pushes Fitness Gear with AR & DAQRI Capitalizes on AR Training

While it may seem to some like investors are just throwing their money at augmented reality companies simply because the tech is heavily hyped, these money managers do actually want to see a return on their investments.

That's probably at least part of the reason Sketchfab has begun selling premium 3D content for use in AR and VR experiences. Similarly, Amazon's shareholders will also be stoked if AR helps boost apparel sales. And DAQRI's investors will no doubt be glad that AR training use cases are pushing units as well. These are the cash-fueled AR stories that dominated the market this week following a mostly uneventful CES.

Sketchfab Opening 3D Content Store

After hosting millions of free 3D models online, Sketchfab is betting that augmented reality and virtual reality developers and creators will be willing to pay for premium 3D content.

Launching as a beta on Wednesday, the Sketchfab Store offers up to 4,000 models for purchase.

"We started Sketchfab to help creators distribute 3D content on every platform and get discovered," said Alban Denoyel, CEO of Sketchfab, in a statement. "Our store is the natural evolution of that."

Read on to find out why the move has implications for content creators, and for the entire AR content ecosystem...

REALITY BITES: At the A3 Business Forum, a conference for robotics and automation, Howard Heppelmann, the division vice president and general manager at PTC, advocated AR's role in usurping legacy technologies in industrial facilities, while Jason Haggar of DAQRI predicted that AR will soon be the user interface for robotics.

Amazon's Newest AR Experience Features Fitness Fashion

Apparently, Amazon's new year's resolution is to bulk up its fitness fashion sales by pumping up its augmented reality muscles.

Last November, Amazon updated its iPhone and iPad apps with ARKit to display a limited selection of furniture, home decor, electronics, and toys in AR. Now a behind-the-scenes video has surfaced of an AR experience pushing athletic wear from Mission for a private event for media and influencers in New York.

Read more about why this AR experience could point the way toward Amazon's AR commerce future...

REALITY BITES: Augmented reality software company Atheer recently interviewed Ramon Llamas, a research manager with International Data Corporation, a market intelligence firm covering the technology industry. Llamas shared his insights on the augmented reality industry and its long-term prospects.

DAQRI Finding Success with AR Training Deployments

While the mainstream consumer market waits for cool augmented glasses to arrive from Magic Leap, or maybe even Snap Inc. (Spectacles 2.0??), AR headset maker DAQRI and its business customers are finding new, money-saving and time-saving use cases for the technology today.

A recent example comes by way of Siemens Energy Services, in Toul, France. The company deployed DAQRI Smart Helmets at one of its power plants to help train its operations and maintenance staff.

But that's just one example. Read on to find out how DAQRI is making its way into new organizations in various, unexpected ways...

Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. Check out previous editions of Market Reality for more news you may have missed.