ABI Research expects 2015 to be a big year for smart glasses with unit shipment growth of nearly 150% in 2015, almost of all of which will be in the enterprise and public sector. The market intelligence firm expects over 90% of smart glasses to be sold in to the enterprise or public sector in 2015 e.g., remote assistance, police and military, security, warehouse and barcode scanning, and, in the consumer space for gaming.
“Smart glasses were much hyped in 2014 as a smartphone replacement, largely on the back Google’s Glass product announced in early 2013,” commented ABI Research Senior Practice Director Nick Spencer. “However, 2014 showed the use case for smart glasses is task specific, for example remote assistance, security (facial and number plate recognition), augmented reality, and virtual reality. The Google Glass generalized use case is a primary reason for the changes announced last week.”