• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 11, 2019

The number of consumer mixed-reality app installs will explode from 3 billion to 10 billion in five years.

That’s according to a new Juniper Research forecast, which defined mixed reality as that which overlays interactive digital images and videos onto the real world through a smartphone, tablet or smart glasses.

Less surprisingly, the research firm identifies social media and games as the key app categories that will drive mixed-reality app adoption through 2024.

During the period, the two dominant categories will account for over half of the global mixed-reality market value, according to Juniper. The researcher predicts that advertising spend over consumer mixed reality apps will reach $11 billion by 2024 -- rising from $2 billion in 2019.

In order for advertising to become appealing to high-spending advertisers over mixed-reality content, Juniper recommends that ad processes mirror those in the wider market.

In addition, Juniper is urging the ecosystem to adopt advertising attribution platforms and fraud prevention tools, in order to attract high ad spend.

However, the firm warns that overexposing users to advertising content will lead swiftly to high disengagement levels.

The new findings show that 75% of the consumer mixed-reality market, by value, will be attributable to in-app purchases by 2024. Yet, Juniper warns these apps will suffer from high app abandonment rates, similar to the wider app market.

In response, the firm is suggesting that app developers continually update their offerings over the life cycle of their apps.

“Despite temptations to continually grow the app user base, app developers must have a primary focus on retaining existing users,” according to research author Sam Barker.

“Successful mixed-reality app developers, Niantic and Snap, have continued to leverage their significant user bases by ensuring that app content is consistently refreshed, therefore benefiting from continued user spend,” Barker notes.