Earlier this month Amazon dropped this bomb on not just the VR/AR Twitterscape...but the whole mobile web.
I actually missed the initial wave of news by being in back to back meetings, so I sent a snarky text to my co-founder James Brunk when he broke the news to me.
(He was asking for it to be the topic of our still yet unnamed and unrecorded podcast, look for that soon!)
But what does this really mean? In a nutshell, Amazon has broken down the door for brands to jump into Augmented Reality. Because they are the number 5 free app on the store, brands aren't saddled with the issue of getting someone to download a new app.
You are able to see items featured on Amazon in the setting where you would place them (IRL) in your home or office. All in fully immersive 3D Augmented Reality. This isn't a "sticker" or a trick, it looks and feels great out of the box.
This is from the official release.
"Amazon’s latest augmented reality offering within the Amazon App launched today for customers with iOS 11 installed on their iPhone 6S or later. Using Apple’s ARKit, AR view helps customers make better shopping decisions by allowing them to visualize the aesthetic and fit of products in their own living space. Customers simply open the Amazon App, click on the camera icon and choose AR view. They can then select from thousands of items – from living room, bedroom, kitchen and home office products to electronics, toys and games, home décor and more. Whether customers are buying a sofa or a kitchen appliance, they can overlay it onto their existing living space, move it and rotate it to get a full 360-degree peek in a live camera view to make sure it fits their style and aesthetic."
Well....Today's Phrase of the Day is OPTIMIZED 3D MODEL
If you are a brand who sells on Amazon, the best way to get there is to take your product and create an optimized 3D model for the app. It's that simple (and we can help).
The better news is once you've done that you're well on your way to creating your own AR/VR storytelling experiences with that model, and you can deliver it across a lot of different platforms.
Like Sketchfab (think the YouTube of 3D)
Or WebVR, or Room-Scale VR, or a video, or printed material....the list goes on. The 3D asset is the biggest barrier to getting to immersive storytelling.
Look for some real (augmented) world examples from us on this front very shortly!
