I work in civil engineering and lots of people here are really interested in the potential of AR. Just something as simple being able to stand in an empty field and look around and 'see' where all the existing pipes are underground and overlay that with where the new water pipes are planned to go makes lots of people here very excited. If you can then 'move' a pipe in real time while in the field and have the CAD drawings back at the office update then that could be a real game-changer.

Basically don't look to Google for the 'hot' applications of AR. Look to companies like Autodesk, ESRI, Tekla, Bently etc.

As a specific example, best Microsoft's Hololens AR use case demos have been about construction and logistics. Those are not gimmicks invented by marketing but actual use cases that professionals in the field feel would be value adding.

The 'seeing the hidden pipes' is a good example.

Another is facility maintenance. The savings are not insifnificant if you could just guide maintenance teams to the problem spot using HUD navigation, instead of finding the broken gizmo after some search.

Completely agreed. I could easily spend an hour talking about all the potential real world uses for AR I see at work and non of them would have anything to do with consumer smart phones or Google/Apple's target audiences.

I've always felt that out of all the AR/VR companies that exist today, Microsoft will be the ones who make it ubiquitous. The average consumer is not the group who is able to bankroll mass production. The money Microsoft makes from selling expensive Gen1 devices to industry and professionals is how they will be able to R&D into cheaper units

How much money is that one convincing use case worth?