Attractiveness of augmented reality to consumers

Augmented reality (AR) may be capable of shaping the competitive advantage of companies by providing various benefits for the consumers. The aim of this article is to assess if AR is attractive to consumers and in which areas it can create the most value. Hence, we have sought to identify the most useful areas of AR applications, as well as factors influencing AR’s attractiveness. Our study finds that consumers regard AR as the most useful in the areas of education, medicine and tourism. Furthermore, we found a gap between the supply and needs of customers in terms of types of AR application offered on the market. We identified advantages and disadvantages of AR applications over their traditional counterparts impacting its adoption. Our research confirms that both hedonic and utilitarian aspects of the user experience are important for AR’s adoption.