IDG Contributor Network: Why augmented reality has surpassed virtual reality as the potential next big thing
There was a fundamental difference about how these two technologies came to market that I think is tied directly to why one appears to be far more successful than the other. What is also interesting is that while there have been point successes with augmented reality in the consumer market with efforts like Pokémon Go, much of the success with both efforts has been in business with a specific focus on training and remote help for service and manufacturing personnel.
Augmented reality (AR) is when rendered content is intermixed with real world items; virtual reality (VR) is when the entire field of view is rendered. The entire class is called mixed reality.