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Pokémon Go Gives Nintendo And Augmented Reality A Major Boost

SAP

It’s astonishing how fast Nintendo’s mobile game Pokemon Go has gone viral and the jaw-dropping fortune it's amassed. According to Reuters, Pokemon Go is installed on more Android phones than dating app Tinder and its rate of active users might soon surpass social network Twitter. In addition, Pokemon Go has added an estimated $7.5 billion to Nintendo’s market value in just two days. It’s a much needed boost for a company that has struggled to remain relevant in the hyper-competitive console wars with Sony and Microsoft.

The runaway success of Pokemon Go could also help speed the adoption of augmented reality in the business world. We all know the game taps into a player’s GPS and allows them to explore their neighborhoods while looking for virtual (augmented reality) Pokemon game characters on their smartphone screens. But it's exactly this type of simple, enthusiastic engagement  global companies are trying to capture as they transition their business processes to a modern, digital framework.

Leading the augmented reality charge

For all the disruption that the digital economy is causing - including viral video games like Pokemon Go - it's a small blip, according to Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, the world’s leading provider of business software. McDermott believes the next 5-10 years will be more disruptive than the 5-10 we just lived through with Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality leading the charge.

“I believe very strongly that intelligent applications will fundamentally change the way you do work in the enterprise and the way you collaborate with your trading partners,” McDermott proclaimed to thousands of SAP customers during its premier customer event SAPPHIRE NOW earlier this year.

Imagine a world, for instance, where warehouse workers can accomplish all their required tasks using smart glasses, enabling a hands-free experience using visualization and voice recognition to receive instructions via smart glasses and allow data entry to be handled through scanning or voice recognition. Or imagine a world where field technicians can quickly troubleshoot and solve problems with the help of intelligent applications that include augmented reality.

This begs the question: Will these types of tech advancements go viral across the enterprise in the same fashion that Pokemon Go has taken the gaming world by storm?