Greetings from a very sunny Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the weather would appear to be a lot better than you guys in Europe are getting right now. Sunny and snow free. I arrived on Monday and have had a busy week getting ready for Christmas. My mother-in-law thinks I am severely under nourished and is cooking like a demon while my father-in-law doesn’t like to see me without a beer and is my own personal bar tender. What more can you ask for?
 
Nitin is suffering from the effects of the weather so while he recovers; the votes have been counted for the first ever Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards. We asked you the readers to vote for the augmented reality applications and demos that have caught your eye in 2009.

We are pleased to announce the winners are:
 
Best augmented reality mobile browser
Winner- Mobilizy (www.mobilizy.com) and the Wikitude World Browser, available for the Android and the iPhone.

“The Wikitude team is proud and very happy to be the winner in the browser category. It shows the broad acceptance of our community to whom we say thank you for supporting our application. 2009 was an exciting year for AR and we are working on our new version Wikitude 4 to be a highlight in 2010.”

Runner up- Layar (www.layar.com)

Best augmented reality mobile application
Winner- Acrossair (www.acrossair.com) and their public transportation location applications (NY Subway, Nearest Tube, Barcelona Metro, Chicago Transit, SF Transit, Madrid Metro, Washington Metro, Paris Metro, Tokyo Subway), for the iPhone.

“At acrossair we are very proud of our augmented reality applications and always try to keep the user experience at the centre of any technology we build. Winning this award means a great deal to us and we will continue to try to release the best augmented reality applications out there.”

Runner up – Yelp (www.yelp.com)

Best web based augmented reality demo
Winners – Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) and PPC (www.theppc.com) and the “We Are AutoBots” demo created for the Transformers movie (www.weareautobots.com/uk/index.php)

“We are delighted to have won this award. It is testament to the positive impact our campaigns are having on consumers. AR is really coming of age and we have seen a huge growth in demand over the past year, with one project being rolled out every two days. “Consumers are bombarded by all types of media nowadays, but AR clearly stands out from the rest. Part of its power is down to the fact that it breaks down barriers and encourages consumers to engage with the brand. It is taking things to a whole new level and creating new and enjoyable experiences for consumers, which can only get bigger and better as the technology evolves.

Runner up- James Alliban and his Augmented Reality Business Card (blog.skive.co.uk/index.php/2009/07/20/ironic-business-card-becomes-accidental-viral)
 
Congratulations to the winners and runner ups. The full press release can be found here.
What we learned from the results

Our survey results also show that most users have experienced augmented reality through a mobile device such as the Apple iPhone or Android with 94% of all respondents having used a location aware augmented reality browser for local search or viewing nearby points of interest. Augmented reality usage on mobile devices is not limited to just location aware browsers with 63% of respondents having used other augmented reality applications such as car locators or nearest tube (subway) Finders.

On the web, 58% of users who answered the survey have tried an online web based augmented reality demo using their web browser and webcam.
In the category of augmented reality browsers, as expected; Wikitude and Layar are the most dominant browsers accounting for 74% of the votes between them.

Since the market for augmented reality applications has grown significantly this year we expected this category to be fiercely contested without a runaway winner; however the public transport applications from Acrossair emerged as the clear winner with margin of 20% greater than the runner up spot.

Of all the survey respondents, 37% said they have never tried an application outside of an augmented reality browser.

This year we have seen Hollywood embrace augmented reality with several movie based online browser/webcam demos. The competition for this category was tough with voting being spread move evenly than the other categories.

42% of the survey respondents have yet to enjoy an online augmented reality demo (take a look in our resources directory for demos you can try www.augmentedplanet.com/resources/)
 
Thanks to everyone that voted. We haven’t heard back from our Chumby winner yet. Freek Bodemeijer if you are out there still, there is a Chumby sitting in my office with your name on it.

Related posts you may like:

1. Win With The Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards
2. Layar & Wikitude come to the iPhone
3. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality – Part III Browsers
4. Metaio change the game with junaio glue
5. 2010 Augmented Reality Predictions