Recently, the demand market for software and devices incorporating augmented reality (AR) is expanding beyond B2C such as games and entertainment to various fields such as defense, architecture, medical care, education, and manufacturing. With major domestic and foreign companies scrambling to launch AR glasses to preoccupy the rapidly growing smart glasses market, there are small and medium-sized companies that have challenged the global market, led by differentiated technology, price, and design competitiveness. The main leader is P&C Solution (CEO Chi-won Choi), which is about to develop and commercialize standalone type AR glasses for the first time in Korea.
Metaverse CG Global Biz Matching Road Show – P&C Solution
P&C Solution, which participated in the ‘Metaverse CG Global Biz Matching Road Show’ organized by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), fascinated buyers with innovative technology and succeeded in making its name known to overseas markets by participating in the world’s largest virtual convergence technology (XR) exhibition.
Founded in 2015, P&C Solution is an XR specialized company that won the “XR Air Force Training Metaverse Platform Project” starting with a military training simulation project, won the Minister of Science and ICT Award in AR glass-related software, and was also selected as a “K-baby unicorn” company. Based on its own “AI engine” and “vSLAM” technologies, it has developed “AR SMART GLASSES,” which is highly utilized in various industries and is preparing to release products with the goal of the first half of next year.
Our biggest competitiveness is that we can supply total solutions from software to devices that go into AR glasses. The self-developed ‘AR SMART GLASSES’ can implement augmented reality through its CPU or its own AP without connecting to a mobile phone. The core technology that realizes this plays a role in realizing more realistic augmented reality by accurately recognizing real-world objects through self-developed technologies.
Currently, we are preparing AR/XR-related test projects with famous domestic large corporations and construction companies L, D, and K.
Chi-won Choi, CEO of P&C Solution
P&C Solution is planning to release Android base stand-alone type products under the concept of Development Kit with the aim of the first half of next year. This product applies a new ergonomic structure and sunglasses-type design, and uses Snapdragon XR2, Qualcomm’s latest mobile chip, allowing you to enjoy augmented reality freely and comfortably on an Android background. Based on Snapdragon 855, the company aims to increase price and service competitiveness by creating AR glasses with “B2B consumer customized” that is one generation ahead of the competitor’s function.
AR Smart Glasses for remote work
P&C Solution said it set the demand target as B2B when it learned that ‘AR SMART GLASSES’ is highly useful as a “remote collaboration tool” during the test business with domestic companies. If a problem occurs in the production line of an overseas factory, the problem can be identified and a solution can be presented in real-time through on-site images shared by workers wearing AR glasses with cameras without visiting them in person, greatly reducing the time and cost burden.
In response, CEO Choi said, “In Korea, we have been increasing the name value of our company by conducting projects with leading companies, but there were many difficulties in overcoming from target setting to network establishment.” In the process of analyzing competitors’ demand sources and reviewing participation in exhibitions to advance overseas, I learned about the Metaverse CG Global Biz Matching Road Show organized by NIPA. We participated in the roadshow to promote “AR SMART GLASSES,” which was first developed in Korea, to overseas markets and discover various content companies to use for our glasses devices, he added.
P&C Solution announced the conference and promoted the booth through contact-free biz meetings and participated in “AWE USA 2021” (hereinafter referred to as AWE) through this roadshow. In the previous contact-free business meeting, meetings were held with more than 10 global consumers, including Israel, Singapore, and the United States.
As part of the roadshow support program, I participated in the AWE, which was the first overseas exhibition I participated in.” At AWE, where officials from the world’s XR industry can gather to share the latest technologies and promote products at the same time, we were able to present conference topics, exhibition booths, and experience zones with NIPA support. Through the promotion of the booth, on-site biz meetings with more than 100 companies were conducted, of which NDA contracts were signed with global conglomerate A, and networks were established with leading global companies. In particular, medical and defense buyers showed high interest in their products, raising the possibility of pioneering the market.
Through the conference, we introduced a remote collaboration with AR Glasses equipped with XR platform and AI function focusing on case studies. When I heard the announcement, I was surprised that more visitors visited the booth than I thought, and I was satisfied, We have set the stage for a successful start through government-supported projects such as NIPA, so we plan to combine this opportunity well and carry out marketing and sales activities more aggressively when the “A21M (Android base/Snapdaron XR2 chip) model.
We are looking at the United States as our target overseas market and plan to expand the market to Southeast Asia and Europe such as Singapore and Malaysia in the future, the goal for next year is to generate more than $5 million in sales through contracts with overseas sales agencies in at least 10 countries.
CEO Choi
P&C Solution, which experienced the positive aspects of pioneering overseas markets through AWE, will actively participate in overseas exhibitions such as MWC and AWE 2022, the world’s largest information and communication exhibitions, starting with the CES exhibition in Las Vegas in January 2022.
Meanwhile, the ‘Metaverse CG Global Biz Matching Road Show‘ organized by NIPA is a project that supports global marketing activities, enters the market, and provides business exchange opportunities to small and medium-sized Korean companies that have excellent technologies and services but have difficulty developing overseas markets. The project lasted for about three weeks from November 8th to 26th this year, and six promising XR-related companies in Korea participated.