Augmented Reality Apps for iOS Show Little Growth, Usage

SuperData has the low numbers, putting the most positive spin possible on them:

Early excitement for the new technology brought a lot of curiosity, but with a modest addition of 250 apps since the last quarter, there aren’t many new ways to experience... Overall, the number of apps users are accessing has gone down since last quarter, with an average of 2 apps per user as opposed to 3 per user last year.

62.5 million users may seem like a lot, but much of that reflects people who've tried one or more AR free apps, then gave up after the novelty wore off. You can see that by the lack of much growth from Q1 2018 to Q2 2018. (I.E., little or no organic, "Wow you gotta try this" viral, word-of-mouth growth.) As a point of contrast, a single non-AR game, Fortnite for iOS, was released to the App Store last March, and to judge by ratings numbers, has probably been downloaded 20-40 million times.

I recently wrote that AR coming to iOS would be Augmented Reality's do-or-die moment, and we may be seeing that now. Unless these user numbers strongly jump next quarter, less and less developers will be willing to invest the resources to make more AR apps -- for iOS, or any platform.

Comments

[TonyVT Skarredghost]

It's not a do-or-die moment...we are in a marathon, not in a sprint. Mobile AR is adding interesting features like multiplayer and places recognition just now. Furthermore, mobile AR is there just to pave the way for smartglasses...