Mobile augmented reality apps are on a rapid rise, according to the latest report from Juniper Research, which reveals that the increased interest will lead to nearly 1.4 billion worldwide downloads by 2015.

Mobile Marketer reported in February on Juniper?s research that global revenues in the space will reach $1.5 billion by 2015. Paired with the download data, the overall findings suggest that augmented reality is gearing up to have a solid place in the mobile sphere.

?Over the past 12 months the number of handsets that have the [mobile augmented reality] enabling technologies has risen from about 8 million to just over 100 million,? said Windsor Holden, principal analyst at Juniper Research, Basingstoke, England. ?So there?s a significantly bigger potential audience for application developers to aim at.?

Juniper Research specializes in mobile and wireless analysis.

New wave of mobile AR
Mobile augmented reality initially seemed to only matter to application developers creating location-based search apps.

However, increasing interest is opening the doors to other sectors of mobile, and augmented reality can be used in games, social networking, education, lifestyle and personal healthcare apps.

?The limits are endless,? Mr. Holden said. ?It could provide you particular information about a product or service. Mobile couponing and mobile ticketing can also have an AR component."

Carlsberg has already begun integrating augmented reality applications into larger campaigns, such as the ?Can Catch? iPhone game the company launched in November.

Other brands such as Time Out, Royal Mail and Coca-Cola are also using applications to enable users to access the augmented reality elements of advertising campaigns.

A marketer?s playground
Augmented reality?the face recognition, 3D views and animations that come alive on the screen?can be an effective tactic for marketers to employ to get consumers behind a brand.

?For mobile marketers, the limits of augmented reality?particularly when you bring the computer vision element into it, when it recognizes a face or a logo?are endless,? Mr. Holden said.

On the consumer's end, Mr. Holden said the logistics and technology is not important?just the message and how it is conveyed.

?The consumers aren?t worried about the mechanics of it,? Mr. Holden said. ?When they see [augmented reality] working, they appreciate that they can interact with it. They?re not wondering how it works.

?You have these virtual creatures leaping over your tabletop or your can of beer," he said. "It?s tremendously exciting.?

While the projected revenue and downloads related to mobile augmented reality are climbing so rapidly, it is still a relatively new concept.

?Before, it was limited to a small number of tech-savvy people,? Mr. Windsor said. ?You?ve got over 100 million [AR compatible] handsets now, but it?s still only just entering the consciousness. This is an area that has the potential for exponential growth.?

Final take
BMW has also been experimenting with augmented reality.