Business Value of the Immersive Internet

ThinkBalm has today released a report looking at the business value of the immersive internet to companies. The report – snappily entitled “ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009″ – was produced following surveys of 6 industry experts and 15 detailed interviews.

The report suggests that although business use of immersive technologies is still in the “early adopter” phase it’s likely to grow significantly. Main motivators for employing the technology were reduced costs, increased innovation and bringing together geographically separate locations. 60% of respondents reported that immersive technology was cheaper than alternatives such as webconferences and in person meetings.

As might be expected in the early adopter phase, most people were initially deploying immersion for simpler use cases such as learning, training and meetings. Over a third of those surveyed expect to expend their investment in immersive technology over the next two years, with another 38% saying they “might” do so.

When it comes to the financial bottom line the results were mixed. 30% felt they recouped their investment costs within nine months of launching their immersive project, however about the same number felt that they hadn’t recouped their costs. The rest are still waiting to see.