VR in real estate has mainstream potential for IT resellers

Growing interest in AR and VR in real estate could open doors for channel partners, according to Ingram Micro; other IT channel news from the week.

Channel firms targeting the real estate market are likely to encounter growing customer interest in emerging VR and AR technology.

That's according to a recent podcast by distributor Ingram Micro, which explored benefits of AR and VR in real estate.  Up to now, the technology has been mostly experimented within high-end real estate situations -- conducting virtual walkthroughs of New York luxury lofts or West Coast mansions, for example. But as the cost of the hardware decreases, channel partners can expect to see VR and AR technology move downstream.

"I would say that [VR in real estate] hasn't trickled all the way down yet, and that's mainly because of the cost of the hardware associated" with it, said Sam Alt, technical support specialist at Ingram Micro, in the podcast. Hardware would include VR headsets and 3D camera equipment.

The benefits of VR in real estate are clear, Alt said. Agents could use VR to perform numerous house tours from one location rather than have to drive with their clients to physically tour the locations. "You could go to one location and you could view multiple houses in an afternoon versus only a few," he said. While house buyers would eventually want to visit a prospective real estate purchase in person, VR could help them weed through the options.

Alt also pointed to a role for augmented reality. Architectural firms could use AR to walk clients through model homes and, using an AR helmet, "swipe through what types of kitchens they could provide," he said. "I think that's a really easy way to ... get a person who's looking to ... build a brand-new home really, really excited and be able to showcase that the end result is going to look exactly like ... [what you can see] in this AR helmet, versus what it would look like on a piece of paper."

"I think that VR and AR really do this market justice because it just brings in an entire new level of detail to what [firms] previously could provide," he added.

CompTIA seeks tech stories

In an effort to encourage young people to enter the IT industry, CompTIA has launched a #MyTechStory initiative, in which current industry personnel tell the story of how they got started in technology.

Todd Thibodeaux, CEO at CompTIA, invited attendees at ChannelCon 2018 to participate, but the program is open to tech workers worldwide. Three- to five-minute videos may be tweeted to @CompTIA using #MyTechStory. Videos may also be emailed to [email protected]. Thibodeaux said his road to IT started with Lincoln Logs and Legos.

Other news

  • AppDynamics, a Cisco business unit specializing in app performance monitoring software, expanded its partner program with a new Pioneer partner tier. Dedicated to regional partners with domain expertise in applications, the Pioneer tier adds to the AppDynamics program's existing Alliance and invitation-only Titan tiers, acting essentially as a promotion path to Titan status. Pioneer partners can access support from channel account managers and channel sales engineers, training and enablement programs, and semiannual business planning sessions, AppDynamics said.
  • Cloud distributor Pax8 will offer Anchor and Cloudfinder to MSPs under a new agreement with Axcient/eFolder, which provides data protection and business continuity offerings.
  • Xerox introduced a marketing toolkit to help partners promote the vendor's managed print services and ConnectKey portfolio. New resources include social media syndication, redesigned partner badges and tools for hosting on-site customer events.
  • Collabrance, a provider of products and services for managed service providers (MSPs), said it expanded its Master Managed Security Services Provider portfolio. The portfolio now features security information event management and vulnerability and penetration testing, Collabrance said.

Market Share is a news roundup published every Friday.

Dig Deeper on Emerging technologies for MSPs

MicroScope
Security
Storage
Networking
Cloud Computing
Data Management
Business Analytics
Close