2018 rugged handheld retrospective and 2019 outlook

Smartglasses facing a challenge

Although in a report published earlier in 2018 VDC projected rapid growth for smartglasses through 2022, this was coming off an extremely small base – 48K units in 2018 – and with most of the opportunity “stuck” in pilot purgatory, the technology remains in search of a breakthrough moment.

While smartglass hardware functionality has various performance gaps that will get resolved over time – especially with broader support from the enabling technology community such as silicon vendors – the key issue holding back this market in our opinion is applications.

Outside of remote assist, meaningful applications have yet to emerge. This will remain a challenge in 2019 as AR/smartglass adoption among mobile/field workers lags.

By: David Krebs VDC Research[/mks_pullquote]