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Partner marketing involves any strategic collaboration between two businesses, or between a business and an individual with a significant personal brand, where both parties work together to accomplish mutual goals. Partner marketing is also called partnership marketing, or simply a partnership.With the help of a trusted voice outside your company, a partnership can effectively increase brand awareness, reach new audiences, and grow its customer base.But what marketing strategies are involved in partnership marketing, and which steps are essential to a successful partner marketing strategy? Let’s dive in.Types of marketing partnershipsPartner marketing is an umbrella term that includes several different types of partnerships. To have the greatest success with partner marketing, it’s important to select the right type of partnership (or partnerships) for your business.Let’s review the main types of marketing partnerships, how they’re structured, and what businesses they work best for.Affiliate marketingWith affiliate marketing, you partner with relevant bloggers, social media personalities, or other content creators who your audience sees as trusted authorities. These partners, known as affiliates, promote your business on their own channels.They place affiliate links to your business on their website, blog, or social media page. Then, every time someone makes a purchase via their link, you pay affiliates a commission.If you plan to start an affiliate program, it must be sustainable for your business to pay affiliates a commission every time an affiliate brings in a new sale. For this reason, affiliate marketing is best for companies that have high customer retention rates or high customer lifetime values. This helps offset the cost you pay affiliates to acquire new customers.Our own survey found that affiliate programs work well for eCommerce, beauty, apparel, tech, health, and subscription businesses – especially those with higher margins.Channel partner marketingChannel partners are any third-party businesses or individuals that help market and sell your products or services to wider audiences and new geographic areas.Channel partners include distributors, retailers, resellers, and wholesalers, who purchase multiple quantities of your products from you to sell in their own marketplaces.They also include individual brokers or agents, who help establish partnerships with you on behalf of other businesses.Affiliates are sometimes classified as channel partners as well, because the links on an affiliate’s channel positions your company to be discovered by new audiences.Channel partner programs are best for established businesses with solidified sales cycles looking for a way to reach new markets and gain new customers. After all, you should know what works best for your own sales process before teaching others how to sell your products.If you start any type of channel partner program, you’ll need partner agreement. Here’s our guide to writing a channel partner agreement, based on best practices.Strategic alliancesA strategic alliance is any carefully selected partnership between two businesses that share the same values. Each business stays independent, but both businesses pool their resources together to reach new audiences, strengthen both brands, and accomplish mutual goals that they might not be able to reach on their own.If you’ve heard of co-branding, co-marketing, or affinity marketing, these are all considered types of strategic alliances, and all are synonymous with each other.In affinity marketing, a business teams up with a non-competing, but related, brand to offer benefits to both their audiences. These benefits could include products, services, or unique perks from one brand that are made available to customers of the other brand.Affinity marketing campaigns carry the branding of both businesses and position each business in front of a new market.One strong example of affinity marketing was when Doritos and Taco Bell partnered up to launch Doritos Locos Tacos. This worked well because both brands had similar customers with similar desires – both brand’s audiences were young people looking for quick, inexpensive snacks.Strategic alliances can work well for any type of business, as long as the partnership is formed carefully. Businesses must make sure both brands will receive equal benefits from the alliance, that the partnership will make sense to both brands’ audiences, and will create new benefits for both audiences.Nonprofit partnershipsStrategic alliances don’t have to be formed with another for-profit business. Many brands form partnerships with a nonprofit. The nonprofit gains a new avenue to raise money and awareness and the for-profit business gains points in its audience’s eyes for advancing a charity or social cause.One example of this nonprofit partnership model is Lokai’s silicone bracelets. Most of these bracelets are directly tied to charitable organizations, and Lokai makes a donation to the relevant organization every time a given bracelet is purchased.Nonprofit partnerships have the potential to work well for any business, as long as the partnership aligns with your brand’s values and feels natural to your audience.Be careful, though – people will call you out if the partnership seems crafted to advance your business standing, without showing true empathy with the cause.Brand ambassador programsBrand ambassador programs count as a type of partner marketing, because they provide a mutual benefit to a company and to an ambassador’s personal brand.In an ambassador program, a brand forms long-term partnerships with trusted authorities in the brand’s niche. These authorities, known as ambassadors, promote the brand to their followers online and in-person, using their own content channels.An ambassador program is different from an affiliate program, even though both rely on partnerships with influential, trusted individuals. An ambassador’s priority is to form genuine relationships with your audience, and share how your brand fits into their daily lives.They focus on sharing authentic stories of why they love a product or service, rather than directly pushing people to make a purchase. Affiliates, on the other hand, focus on making as many individual sales as possible (because they receive a commission on each sale).If you want a trusted name to back your brand and form authentic relationships with your audience, an ambassador program is a good fit for your business.5 crucial steps in a partner marketing strategyNow that we’ve reviewed the most common types of partnerships, here are five best practices to set your partner program up for success. Even though partner marketing includes many diverse types of partnerships, these fundamental best practices will serve you well no matter which type (or types) of partner programs you launch.1. Select the right partners for your brandFirst and foremost, you’ll need to make sure the partnerships you form make sense for both brands involved, as well as both of your audiences.Here are some tips for selecting the right partners:Choose a partner who has a similar audience to yours, but who isn’t a direct competitor. The partner could be in the same wider industry as your brand, or simply a brand that appeals to the same specific demographics.Partner with a brand your target audience would genuinely be interested in and benefit from. If that “brand” is an individual (an ambassador or affiliate), they should create content your target audience will find beneficial and engaging.Figure out what you and your potential partner could offer both of your audiences together. Make sure you can offer something to the other brand’s audience that the brand can’t achieve on their own. Likewise, determine what unique benefits your potential partner could offer to your audience.Consider the value each brand would potentially bring to the partnership.Will a partner:Help you grow your customer base or membership base?Increase brand awareness for you?Grow your social media following?Expose your brand to an audience that hasn’t heard of you before?What benefits will you offer your partner?In the case of a distributor or retailer, this would likely be your product or service that the business doesn’t currently offer.If the partner is an affiliate or ambassador, the benefit would be your commission/compensation and the growth of their personal brand.If it’s a strategic partnership, the co-branded effort might expose the brand to a new audience, grow their customer base, and/or increase awareness of their brand (just like they will do for your brand).Partner with a business or influential individual whose overall brand identity complements your own. Ensure your partner’s brand and values are in harmony with your own. Never partner with a brand whose values or image clashes with yours.Verify each partner can help accomplish at least one business goal before formally entering the partnership. Together, find and discuss any relevant mutual goals. Clearly identify what you and the potential partner offer each other that you can’t accomplish on your own.2. Set measurable goals for the partnership (and how you’ll track them)Once you’ve entered into an agreement with a new partner or partners, it’s time to set goals for your partnership.To truly gauge the success of your partnership, you’ll need to make sure your goals are measurable. This provides a reliable way of tracking how your partnership is performing.The exact metrics you track will vary based on your program and needs, but here are some examples of metrics you could track to kick-start your thinking:Increase leads from a specific audience demographic (or specific channel) by X%Increase purchases from a specific audience demographic (or specific channel) by X%Generate a minimum of X amount of revenue with the partner program in a given month, quarter, or yearAcquire at least X new customers through the partnership in a given month, quarter, or yearGenerate at least X qualified leads through the partnership in a given month, quarter, or yearIncrease website visitors by X%Increase social media following (or social media engagement) by X%Make sure you have a reliable way to collect and organize key partner program data. To track your partner marketing success, PRM software is key to this process. (More on PRM software below.)3. Reward your partners to keep them motivatedOffering rewards is key to keep your partners motivated and your partner marketing program running smoothly. Partners deserve to be rewarded for their efforts, and that reward is often key to providing them continued value.The way you incentivize your partners will differ depending on the specific partner program you run.For affiliate programs, this is the commission an affiliate makes on each sale. The commission is usually a set percentage of each purchase made through the affiliate link. We’ve put together tips for setting affiliate commissions in our articles on starting an affiliate program and best practices for running an affiliate program.Channel partners should also earn more rewards the more sales they make. This encourages them to promote your product most effectively and stay loyal to your brand. Channel partner incentives can be in the form of rebates, discounts, or sales performance incentive funds (SPIFs) when a partner company’s representative meets given sales goals.If your sales cycle is longer, you could also reward channel partners for the qualified leads they generate. For tips on choosing channel partner incentives.For ambassador program rewards, you should personalize incentives based on what best motivates the particular ambassador. You could reward them with cash, free products, or another reward you think they’d value (such as a trip or tech item).Remember, though – you’re rewarding them for the ambassadorship, not for each sale they make. You want them to prioritize a long-term relationship over one-time sales. We’ve included a reward section in our article on creating a brand ambassador program.As for strategic alliances, the incentives are embedded into the program’s core – your support of each other’s brand, the brand awareness created, the new audiences reached, and the new sales generated.It’s all about the mutual benefit the co-branded effort creates. So make sure you’re creating plenty of value for your partner, and they’ll create value for you in return!Similarly, for nonprofit alliances, the incentives are typically the donations received by the nonprofit and awareness raised for the nonprofit during the campaign.4. Establish how you’ll support partners throughout the processTo maintain the health of your partnership, check in with your partners regularly.When partners first sign on, you’ll need to devote time to onboard them. Give partners all the information they need about your company so they’re equipped to promote your brand successfully.In addition, have them agree to the terms and conditions of your partner program, as well as any branding rules and guidelines you have.As the relationship continues, keep partners updated on developments in your business, continually supply them with the assets and information for promoting your brand, and make sure they know how to contact you for any questions.Often, a partner portal is key to providing partner support in a timely manner, and supplying continued education and training resources for partner success. PRM software can help you create and maintain a partner portal, which can be customized and personalized for the needs of each partnership.5. Use PRM softwareThe tasks and data involved in managing a partner program are usually too overwhelming to accomplish manually – especially if you recruit and manage many partners.Fortunately, PRM software makes many aspects of running your partner program much easier. It streamlines and automates key partner program tasks, including finding and recruiting partners, tracking partner program metrics, incentivizing partners, exchanging company assets, and maintaining efficient communication.PRM software is essential for managing any partner program, no matter what form that program takes. Our complete guide to PRM software will help you find the right partner program tool for your needs.And if you’re looking for software tailored to affiliate programs or software designed for ambassador programs, we’ve got you covered as well.Wrapping things upPartner marketing involves recruiting trusted people to promote your business to new audiences, and to accomplish mutual goals you wouldn’t be able to achieve on your own.Partner marketing takes many forms, including affiliate marketing, strategic alliances, channel partner programs, and signing on brand ambassadors. No matter which type of program you run, ensuring both you and your partners gain mutual benefit from the partnership is key – -it’s a two-way street.PRM software is also key to making sure every type of partner marketing program runs smoothly. Be sure to select the right PRM software for your needs, especially if you plan to manage multiple partnership types at once.Some PRM software programs are hyper-focused on one type of partnership, and other PRM software programs have the flexibility to handle multiple types of partner marketing.

I am from India and belong to the state of Kerala. India is a huge continent-sized country with many states as large as many countries in Europe or Latin America. Due to this, the culture of India is so diverse and varies between states and places. So as Islamic culture of my state Kerala is mostly unique and exclusive to our region, not comparable to Islam practiced in other parts of India.One most unique factor is that Kerala was the first place where Islam spread into after its origins in Arabia, in South Asia. Islam came to Kerala during the lifetime of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) much before the religion spread even to other parts of Middle East.Though its a myth and folklore with little direct historical evidence, its widely believed that the last Emperor of Kerala - Cheraman Perumal became the first Muslim convert after he had a strange dream of the splitting of the moon. The dream haunted him for months, untill a few Arab merchants in his court advised him to meet Prophet Mohammed of Mecca to resolve his dilemma. And accordingly, he traveled to Mecca and met Prophet who helped him to understand the ultimate truth and thus converted to the Islamic faith. With his blessings, the Emperor married the daughter of Najd Ruler (modern Riyadh) and on his travel back to Kerala, he passed away near Salalah in today’s Oman where a tomb was commissioned in his honor which exists today. Prior to his death, a royal will was signed and sent back to Kerala along with Prophet’s closest companion- Malik Dinar who came to the imperial capital of Cheras- the Mahodayapuram (modern Kodungallor) where the first Mosque in the Indian subcontinent was established.Though the folktale has little evidence, historical evidence highlight India’s first mosque was indeed located in Kodungallor, which is popularly known as Cheraman Pally (The Royal Mosque of Cheras) which was built around 629 AD, thus becoming one of the oldest mosques in the world, the first in South Asia. The mosque thus retains some of the old Kerala temple concepts like facing towards east (instead of Makkah), burning oil lamps inside the shrine with traditional Sopanam (holy steps) etc and similar rituals and customsOriginal Cherman Mosque which got destroyed several times due to floods etc. The original design resembles much to the likes of Hindu temple plan, which was redesigned to current Arabic style in 1950s. As part of a revival of heritage plans, the mosque is scheduled to be redesigned back to its old styleMalik Dinar Mosque- the second oldest mosque in the country built in the 8th century that has the tomb of Malik Dinar, Prophet Mohammed’s beloved companion who brought Islam to KeralaAnd that highlights the key essence of Islam in Kerala. Unlike North India which experienced brutal invasions of Political Islam that marked its entry, Islam reached the shores of Kerala nearly 400 years before via trade and peace. Prophet’s companion- Malik Deenar, is widely credited for bringing the message of Prophet to Kerala and thus regarded as one of the holiest missionary for Muslims in the state. He established some of the oldest mosques in the country majority being in Kerala and Maldives, all dating in the late 7th century and early 8th century, and finally laid to rest in Thalangara, Kasaragod.Thazhathangady Juma Mosque, A 1000-year-old mosque in Kottayam is noted for its traditional Kerala architecture that resembles Temple with extensive woodwork, showcases the blend of Islam into Kerala cultureMishkal Mosque, an iconic mosque in Kozhikode is a classic specimen of Kerala Islamic Architecture. The Mosque was the site of Portuguese attack against the Calicut Kingdom in 16th century which led to its partial destruction, only to reconstructed by Hindu Zamorin under state patronagePonnani Valiya Pally- known as Mecca of Kerala, is one of the holiest shrines in Kerala, as it was established by one of the descendants of Prophet Mohammed. It's still the key seat of Islam in Kerala and hub of Islamic education and culture.Why Ponnanni is the 'Mecca' of MalabarCalvetty Pally of Kochi, located close to the original Palace of Kochi Kings, commissioned when the capital was shifted to Kochi Island in 14th century under state patronage. Designed in original Kerala-Arabic style, the mosque was the only non-Hindu structure to have copper roofs, a privilege only for Hindu temples in that era.As Islam came to Kerala via Arab traders, much of Islamic values followed in the state remain as to the early school of Islam- the Shafi‘i School of Islam contrary to the Hanafi school of Islam as followed in rest of India. Much of Kerala’s Islam was influenced by Arab trader community of modern-day Yemen and West coast of Arabia (old Hejaz region), thus Kerala Islam is much in common with traditions as followed in Indonesia-Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and East African coast rather than rest of India.Islam is currently a major religion in Kerala. Muslims represent 26.5% of Kerala’s population and almost everyone practices the Sunni branch of Islamic faith. Kerala never had any indigenous Shia cult despite of its traditional cultural linkages with Persia.Muslims community always played a key role in Kerala’s socio-cultural and political history. While Muslim community is almost fairly distributed across the state, the Malabar region of Kerala (North Kerala) has a much larger concentration of Muslims, due to traditional cultural linkages of Malabar with Arabia and due to the reason, Kerala Islamic culture is heavily mixed with Arabic essence along with local traditions. Unlike rest of India, the local Islam isn’t influenced by Turkic/Central Asian Islamic influences as seen in Northern parts of India.Kollam Copper Plate- an Imperial grant issued to Muslims in 9th century in Old Malayalam script along with Kufic Arabic and Persian Pahlavi script that grants princely status to Muslim leaders and community in the societyDue to its peaceful entry, the faith got strongly rooted in an unusual combination with local Hindu customs. Arab merchants were the key linkage between Kerala and Europe for the exotic spices that were of high demand since times immemorial. This trade connection, slowly made many Arabs merchants marry local Hindu ladies and their children thus became the Mappila community (the initial Muslim community). And due to this reason, Mappilla community have a very mixed tradition between Kerala Hindu and Arab cultures. Most of the initial marriages of Arab traders were with the Nair community in 8th century and thus Mappillas were almost seen as an extension of the Nair community. When Caste system came up by 11th century due to the rise of Brahminical Hinduism over Kerala’s political sphere, Nairs became an upper caste community mostly as feudal lords and administration class, which also resulted in Mappilla community to be accorded the same status as that of Nairs. Thus within a shorter span of 3 to 4 centuries after the arrival of Islam to Kerala, Mappilla community almost became a major administrative and marital community along with their original trait as a trading community. This lead to the formation of a strong aristocracy culture within the Mappilla community, especially in Malabar side with a huge impact in the cultural and literature due to the strong stately patronage.Documentary of Uru- the wooden shipbuilding industry which changed the course of Mappilla history in KeralaUrus, that made Mappillas, the biggest mercantile community acting as a social linkage between Kerala and ArabiaThe trade linkage with Arabs, helped Mappila Muslim community to become the major mercantile community with natural traits over sea sailing and commanding large merchant ships. This gave birth to a huge Shipbuilding tradition called Urus (Wooden Ships) primarily based in and around Kozhikode and Malabar area. These Urus were of high demand by Arab community which soon became the Arab Dhows and thus further cemented higher degree of sea trading between Mappillas and Arabs. Even today, the Arab world considers Malabar Urus as the finest Dhows for leisure and cultural purposes that has considerable Arab Royal patronage.The shipbuilding culture of Kerala thus heavily associated with Islam and gave birth to a new class of Muslim community called Marakkar. Marakkar originally means Sailors, but soon resulted in the formation of a separate community within Muslims in Kerala. This slowly started the formation of an unofficial caste system within Kerala Muslims with Mappillas representing the highest caste and others in respective levels of hierarchy.Documentary on Kunjali Marakkars- the Admiralty of KozhikodeHowever the rise of Marakkar community resulted in making them as a marital community too. Till 14th century, Kerala never had a concept of Navy as such as it was all limited to the land army. Marakkar community, being sailors had to fight a lot of sea piracy between Kerala and Arabia. This made them slowly trained in Kerala Martial artforms (Kalaripayattu) along with Turkish Naval tactics to secure their positions in a naval warfare against pirates. Thus slowly Marrikkars became major naval mercenaries available to local Kings of Kerala, which was heavily patronized by Zamorin of Kozhikode in his expansionist policy. Thus sooner Kozhikode became one of the major Kingdoms in India to have a stronger Naval unit and it became famous after its celebrated naval warfare against Portuguese (though the latter had an upper hand due to its more modern naval artillery). However, the heroics of Admiralty of Kozhikode at Ponnai Fort under the celebrated Admirals- Kunjali Marakkars against Portuguese were some of the noted naval military legacies of the country. Due to this reason, Indian Navy still considers Kunjali Marakkars and the Admiralty of Kozhikode as a key Indian Naval heritage and often many facilities of Indian Navy being named after them.Indian Navy’s commemorative Stamp and postal card issue to remember the heroics of Kunjali Marakkars as Admirals of Kozhikode who organized one of India’s first professional NavyThe Muslims of Kerala thus inherited two major traits primarily- the original trading traits of Arabs/Mappillas and then the sea-faring traits of Marakkar community. Even today, the majority of Kerala’s famous businessmen and trade community are dominated by Muslims who are ambitious and enterprising much on likes of Marwadi community of North India or Chettiyar community of Tamil Nadu.Unlike rest of India, Muslims of Kerala aren’t seen as a separate entity or have any sort of distinctive identity. In many parts of India, Muslims were historically trained to speak their language- Urdu (due to Persian influence) and distinctive cultural traits that keep them away from others. In Kerala, Muslims don’t know Urdu or any other language other than Malayalam. Due to this reason, there is a higher degree of integration for Muslims in Kerala with others. In the normal course, it's very hard to distinguish a Muslim from other communities.Caste systemKerala Muslims are mostly Sunnis. However, due to its traditional association with Hindu culture, Kerala Muslims do have an informal caste system within it, though officially never acknowledged.Panakkad Shihab Thangal, the recently demised Thangal. As spiritual head of Muslims of Kerala, Thangals are always seen as representative of Prophet Mohammed in KeralaThangals- The highest caste group within Muslim community in Kerala. They were originally Sayyids of Banu Hashim clan of Hejaz in Arabia and claims to be descendants of Prophet Mohammed’s family. The present-day Thangals are supposed to be descended from Sayyid families who migrated from the historic city of Tarim, in the Hadhramaut Province, Yemen, during the 17th century in order to propagate Islam on the Malabar Coast. The term- Thangal is an honorific title much like Shastri/Bhattathiripad etc seen among Hindu Brahmins. In short, Thangals are often associated to the Brahminical equivalent class for Muslims of Kerala. They hold the key spiritual positions among Muslims, heads of several Islamic Jurisprudence councils, Grand Imams of famous mosques and heads of various spiritual councils. The most famous of them, being the Thangal of Panakkad often seen somewhat like Pope of Kerala Muslims being the spiritual head of Sunnis of Kerala and his defacto position as head of Kerala Muslim League party, one of the major political parties of Kerala.Mappillas- The biggest community within Muslims of Kerala. They were the original Muslims of Kerala as formed since the 9th century. They were mostly aristocrats heavily associated as landlord community with many holding key positions in various Hindu Kingdoms of old Kerala. Apart from that, they were much in trade and business sectors and still seen as the most important business community of Kerala. The only Muslim Royal family of Kerala- the Arakkal Kingdom of Kannur (Arakkal Kotta), belongs to this community. And notably, the community was much similar to the Nair community in many social customs and attitudes, especially in its adherence to the matrilineal traditions which wasn’t seen in any other Islamic communities in general.Marakkar - The seafaring community among Muslims, which forms the third layer. They were mostly into ship service in past and even today. Much of Malayalees who are part of Indian Merchant Navy service comes from this community. Marakkar community is spread across Kerala, Lakshadweep Island, Maldives and West coast of Sri Lanka. They also traditionally associated as a martial community, especially in naval warfare. A section of this community is associated with Shipbuilding business in Beypore who are generally referred to as Khalasis. They are extraordinary carpenters and heavily skilled in wood works. Another sub-community among is Nahas, a traditional word associated with Ship Captain in Arabic. However today they are seen as a separate community, though classified among Marakkar due to their seafaring traditions.Keyis and Koyas: These communities were originally Arab families who came and settled in Malabar by 15th-16th century. The Keyis were mostly from Hejaz region of Saudi while Koyas were mostly from Salalah of Oman. Keyis were extraordinary businessmen, notably famous for their diamond and spice trade. However, they soon emerged as key political figures who worked as mediators between British East India Company and local Kings of Malabar as well as earned repute among Hindu rulers of Malabar for saving many during Tipu’s invasion. Koyas on other hand were clerks and officials who worked in Zamorin’s court and thus seen mostly as the official class. Though these communities were highly influential in past and modern politics of Kerala, Mappilla community continue to see them as semi-foreigners, hence delegated to lower hierarchy.Pusalans : A lower caste among Muslims. They were mostly the converts who were originally lower caste members from Hindu community, converted into Islam since the 18th century, especially during the time of Tipu’s invasion. The term Pusalan is an abbreviation of the word- Puthiya Islam (Neo Converts). As Mappillas consider themselves as Nair equivalent, they often had a strong caste conscious and saw other lower castes in Hindus with social disgust just like any caste Hindus of that time. This made the same Mappila community to see these people when converted to Islam with similar levels of social disgust. Often these lower castes were darker in complexion which reinforced the racial bias against them as Mappillas had mostly Caucasian features due to their Arab mixed genes. Majority of them traditionally work as fishermen (Mukkavar), Market labourers (Angadikar), bonded farm labourers, servants etc, though much of these caste bias have reduced since the Reniassance era of 1900s and formation of several Muslim associations aimed to eradicate the bias against them.Ossans : The lowest caste among Muslims, much equivalent to Avarnas of Hindu community. Ossans, however, is much required for Mappilla community as being a traditional barber and circumcisionist community. As Mappilla community practiced untouchability to a degree, they considered many Pusalans as untouchables. Though Ossans were the lowest ranked community, had traditional rights to touch a Mappilla man, especially for grooming purposes as Mappilla Muslims maintained an extraordinary standard in grooming. So as circumcision is an important act for Muslim men, this community thus held an important status. Ossan ladies also worked in the kitchens of Mappillas as assistants or support staff.OutsidersThere are few Muslim communities, which Mappilla communities regarded as outsiders and hence never ranked in the social hierarchy. These are primarily Tamil/Deccan Muslim communities who came to Kerala for trade. Mappillas rarely considered them as genuine Muslims due to their difference in the school of thought (most of these communities believe in Hanafi school contrary to Shafi school of Mappillas). This includes Rawather community seen in Palakkad, Labbi communities of Travancore, Nainar/Memom/Kutchi communities of Cochin, Bohras of Kozhikode, Kannur and Kochi, Vattakkolis of Kasargod and Dakhni Pathans of Central Travancore. Due to the traditional hostile attitudes of local Muslims against them with several degrees of social discriminations, these communities never grew in size, thus reduced to minuscule minorities, mostly concentrated in these areas.Though Muslims of Kerala never admits the existence of a caste system in their society, most of them unofficially adhere to these class codes which is part of the social system of Islam in Kerala. The degrees of discrimination have widely reduced due to the rise of Renaissance values. But like Hindu society, the class values have something deeply ingrained in the social consciousness which often comes to play for family alliances etc.Apart from the traditional caste system, modern Muslims of Kerala are widely divided between various spiritual groups and camps. This division comes primarily over the question of reformation of values and traditions as well as political attitudes.The Muslim society is heavily divided between various social groups due to attitudes towards reforms and Quranic jurisprudence. The key groups areSamasatha Kerala Jamyithul UlemaThe Scholar council of Samsatha Kerala Jamyitul UlemaThe largest body among Sunni Muslims, popularly known as Samastha who strictly adhere to the Sufism and traditional liberal school of Shafism. They believe in the continuity of various traditions and local customs which they believe is as holy as original Quranic concepts. Though being orthodox, they are highly moderate in their views and believe in liberal approach. This body is primarily divided between EK Sunni camp named after their leader E K Abubacker Musaliyar and AP Sunni camp named after their leader- A P Abubacker Musaliyar. Generally, EK Sunnis are pro-moderate and aligned with Indian National Congress values. They form the basis of Muslim League in Kerala, while AP Sunni camp believes in Socialist Islam and heavily adheres to Left values and thus close to Communist party.Kerala Nadvathul MujahideenKNM Annual State MeetingThe reformist group, who wanted to bypass all local traditions and customs by returning to puritan values as indicated in Quran. They are upholders of Salafism. This groups started off as reformists by asking Muslims to end many orthodox (yet liberal) traditions and returning back to puritan concepts which actually was an ultra-conservative in nature (equivalent to Wahabbism of Saudi). However they played a key role in reducing caste discrimination as well as other traditional evils in Sunni societyJamat Islami HindThe Leftist group within the Muslim community, which is equivalent to the Muslim Brotherhood, that aims for an Islamic society adhered in liberal democracy and socialist values. They believe, there is no distinction between religious and material life, so as to maximize religious beliefs in the material word. As being a progressive group, they maximize Islamic principles in social life like the concept of Islamic Banking, Islamic higher education, modern medical knowledge, and research etc. They are highly against US policies and considers a majority of it as Western Imperialism.Dakshina Kerala Jamiyathul Ulema.While the other three are primarily based in Malabar, this group represents the Muslim society in Travancore and Kochi belt. They adhere to Deobandi thoughts and believes in the traditional system of Islam community.Apart from these, there are more than 40 to 50 fractions and sub-organizations, making Muslim community in Kerala, the most fractionalized/fractured community in the state.PoliticsMuslims community is strongly connected to Kerala politics as a major electorate force. The oldest party among Muslims of Kerala is the Indian Union Muslim League which is primarily based in Kerala. This party holds a huge social appeal among Muslims of Kerala, due to its history as being the only state unit of All India Muslim League (which demanded the division of British India) that opposed the concept of formation of Pakistan by dividing India into communal lines. Due to this, they left AIML and formed IUML and eventually became the second leading partner of Congress-led UDFIUML has a strong representation in Kerala State Assembly and even successfully able to place their leader CH Mohammed Koya as Chief Minister of Kerala.CH Mohammed Koya. Kerala’s first and only Muslim Chief Minister.There are several smaller Muslim political parties like INL, SIO, Welfare Party, Popular Front and many like that, which primarily opposed to the moderate stand of IUML in Kerala Politics. Being radicalized parties, they rarely able to find electoral success in KeralaArun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to What is your view about Congress making an alliance with IUML, whose ideology is communal?Islamic educationMuslim society gives huge importance to religious education which is part of worldwide Islamic culture. In Kerala too, Islamic education is highly regarded among Muslims. Unlike many other states, there is no state-level Govt sponsored board/curriculum for Islamic education. As Muslim society in Kerala is heavily fractured between various spiritual camps, there are multiple Islamic education boards formed by these groups.Samasatha controls the majority of Madarasas in Kerala.The traditional madarasa is called Othupally and found attached to the majority of traditional mosques where Quran and Hadiths are taught primarily in Arabi-Malayalam (a mixture of Arabic and Malayalam). The imam of the mosque also acts as the teacher of the Othupalli and gives basic Islamic education to the children of the area. Students here are taught surahs and duas from Quran and learn to read basic Arabic words to read Quran. They will also learn how to pray and other basic Islamic teachings are imparted.Single teacher Madarasa/Othupally as common in most of the mosquesThe next tier is called Dar Pallikoodams or Islamic Schools, which is very unique to Kerala. Almost all major mosques have an inhouse school located in the second floor of the Masjid where students can reside and study. A selected few from each locality gets right to live and study during their free time as well as during holidays etc. While the study in such a dedicated facility, they have a secondary role to go to other houses of each locality and teach others what they have learned from the facility. A Dar student has traditional rights to visit any Muslim family in a locality and propagate what he learned from the Dar to the younger ones of the family.Dar Pallikkoodams, one of the major Islamic residential training facilities.Normally each Dar accommodates a maximum of 50 to 100 students at a time under the guidance of an Islamic scholar. Many Dars have been modernized with the use of digital facilities and use of computer-aided educationThe third tier is Islamia Colleges or more popularly known- Arabic colleges. Technically these colleges are normal colleges teaching non-religious subjects (mostly arts and humanities) with additional subjects on Islamic education, Quran and Arabic literature. They are mostly residential in nature and aimed to provide modern education streams along with religious education.Regular Islamia/Arabic colleges where non-religious topics are taught apart from religious subjects.Further, there are few Islamic research centers mostly affiliated to International Islamic universities (mostly Al Azhar of Egypt or Madina University of Saudi) that have higher education in field of theology and religious studies.Darul Huda, one of Kerala’s largest Islamic Universities that offers higher eduation in Islamic studies and research in theology apart from secular subjects linked with Govt of India’s Indira Gandhi Open UniversityAs there are no government level boards to monitor or standardize the curriculum of Madarassas, each major organization has their own Religious Education Curriculum Board, with Samastha being the largest. Almost all of these boards have public examinations as well as scholarship options.Modern EducationTraditionally Muslim community used to view Modern Education as a Western tool to subordinate locals. The traditional rivalry between Muslims and Portuguese has created an extreme distrust among Muslim community for English Education as much of these were originally carried out by Missionaries with the support of local Kings.Various Ulemas often issued Fatwas asking Muslims not to enroll for modern English or even Malayalam schools following Western curriculum concept. This made Muslim community extremely backward since 19th century and they lost many economic and administrative opportunities which all got linked with Modern education.After the 1920s Mappilla riots, there was a huge change in attitudes of the Muslim community across Kerala. There was an urge within the community to move modern and seek modern education. Post Mappilla riots, there was a revisionist movement within Muslim community with several educated youngsters decrying against the orthodoxy of Ulemas and others resulted in forming Kerala Muslim Aikya Sanghom in 1922. The aim of Sanghom was to be a Muslim Educational Missionary much on likes of Christian missionaries.Farooq College, popularly known as Aligarh of Kerala, is the first modern college with secular subjects formed by Muslim communityThe first major modern education formed was Farooq College in Calicut which was designed on lines of Kottayam’s famed Christan Mission Society College (CMS) in 1943 which eventually became Aligarh of Kerala. The Sanghom had campaigned among Muslim community to enroll in professional colleges and seek modern education aggressively which changed the profile of Muslim society radically. Several Muslim industrialists started establishing professional educational institutions like TKM Institutions (One of Kerala’s most premier Engineering and technical institution), MES (Muslim Educational Society) with its chain of modern institutions who also still play a key role in challenging Islamic orthodoxy, KMCT as well as Al Ameen Group for its network of schools.TKM, one of Kerala’s premier technical colleges based in Kollam. The group has further expanded to all streams of education and regarded as pioneer in modern education among the Muslim community.In addition, several aided schools were established under Muslim Management, pushing the Muslim education enrollment and literacy to higher rates contrary to many other parts of the countryKerala ahead in enrolment of Muslim students in schools - Times of IndiaMuslim FashionMost of Muslim men spots in normal dressing as common to other Malayalee men with a preference to white garments and normally spot in Mundu worn towards left.Traditional Muslim women fashion as modelled for a photo shootTraditionally Muslim men used to wear almost an attire similar to Nairs, ie white Mundu. However they wear the mundu other way round, ie the borders of Mundu comes on left side, inside of the right side which is the usual custom. So as they spot either Thalangara Cap or white turban coupled with a white shirt.Ladies traditionally used to wear starched Mundu with a loose jacket (Kuppayam) and a head shawl called Thattam.However with massive Arabic influences due to the large-scale migration of Muslim youth to Middle east, a lot of Arabization has happened when the introduction of Arab styled Burqas dubbed as a religious dress for ladies. Saying so, most of the progressive Muslim girls, prefer normal Churidar or Sarees etc with full covered blouses and a head shawl.On contrary Muslim boys are highly positive to western fashion and its very common to spot them in latest freaky western fashion.Arts and cultureIslam in Kerala has heavily contributed to arts and culture in a very big way, especially poetry and literature. This is primarily due to the traditional Arabic influence which stresses heavily on classical poetry and calligraphy.Muslims have prefected a distinctive stream of music in Kerala called Mappillapattu. The Mappilla pattukal (Muslim Songs) have an unusual blend of Persian and Dravidian music styles and used to praise the greatness of Prophet Mohammed and stories from Quran and Hadiths. Over a period of time, more diverse topics such as nature, romance etc have crept in and enriched the content in a very big way.The viral song due to the wink girl- Priya Warrier is a classic example of Mappilla songs in modern cinema due to its popularity. The song is a classic Mappillapattu that describes Prophet Mohammed’s love with his wife- Khadeeja Beevi at MeccaSongs like Ente Khalbilee etc highlights the extent of popularity of Mappilla songs among Malayalees.Today Mappilla-pattukkal is one of the most popular musical streams of Kerala, enjoyed by all segments of society and a popular option for movies as well as other options.Ishal recitals, the famous Islamic Malayalam poetry culture is very popular in KeralaThe Mappillapattu culture also gave birth to a huge poetry concerts culture called Ishalravvu. It's very common in Malabar region where Muslim influences are high and off-recently many Malayalam channels do host such programs attracting even Non-Muslims for such concerts.Oppanna song as featured in a movieMappilla pattukkal is heavily used for wedding ceremonies and gave birth to a Muslim danceform called Oppanna, celebrating the bride’s romantic imaginations.Traditional Duffmuttu as performed for a competitionAnother religious artform among Muslims is Duffmuttu to commemorate Islamic festivals and special occasions. The key activity is to praise the heroics of great Islamic warriors and moments of glory by beating Duff, an Arabic instrument. A harder version of this artform called arabana muttu is equally popularSo as Kolkalli is a popular Islamic art (there is an Hindu version of the same artform) celebrated in North Malabar, which focuses on fast rhythmic steps.Mappilla literature is widely famous for its rustic, simplistic form of expression with use of satirical humor and day to day narratives of life in a simple way. This stream was heavily popularized and enriched by several celebrated Muslim writers with Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer being the most celebrated among them.The contribution of Muslims in the Development of Malayalam Language and LiteratureIslam is a well-integrated religion in Kerala and part of the Malayalee fabric. There are indeed concerns of rising radicalism, mostly fuelled by Islamic radical groups with imported ideologies, though it's still very minuscule in the society and often exaggerated in media. Such issues are common everywhere. So keeping such topics aside. there is very little Islamophobia in the society and very low communal tensions in the society unlike in few other parts of the nation.Further readingA Peek to Kerala Muslim Cuisine

I start with an attempt to define and restrict the scope of terms such as AR, VR, tax that are nebulous and context dependent. Then I examine the current state from a historical and market perspective. Then I consider the actual h/w, identify stable and unstable components, followed by a look at supply chains & opportunities. I end with a few discussions on physiological issues, GPUs and captive content distribution channels.I discount content developer opinions and selective pre-order volume based metrics here - Their (A) enthusiasm is driven by assumptions of first-mover advantages on immature platforms, & (B) are not locked-in to platforms & will switch to largest player when that makes sense.Definitions and restrictionstax - A company X taxes a market Y, when X maintains the most immediately useful tool-chain combinations of IP/Services/products such that X may assume a default position in any product pipeline in Y.Example: X=AWS (from Vaibhav Mallaya's comment) for Y=cloud,Example: X=Texas Instruments for the Y=home-projection market.Note:For such taxes to exist Y needs to be mature.Taxation is never only a matter of technology superiority but requires perception engineering and X's active participation.Companies need to react in real time to developments in YExample: TI's tactics in creating a DLP monopoly (InFocus case)Example: Sharp/(MITI)'s decline+failure to contain Taiwan LCDNote: AR is not equivalent to VRVR can use non-transparent display substrates, AR may not.VR needs far greater calibration between the human visual system and the display, AR does not. Consequently VR needs more computing than AR does.VR hardware is easier to produce but harder to manage, over AR.AR may be made sleeker than VR.AR is mobile, VR may be static.AR is a generic term - can mean vision, audio or haptic, but popular press prefers to relate it to vision. VR is primarily based on the visual system.This distinction should make it clear that these are two different types of supply chains. VR due to its 'welder's mask' design approach doesn't need to be too sleek, consequently it is easier to manipulate existing component lines to work with VR. AR relies more on sleekness and wearability. So AR needs highly custom compactifaction - Something that no one has achieved yet, but I know all are working on this. Apparently there's also a new category that converges these two segments called Mixed reality.Another point requiring specificity - I imply head mounted or near eye display based interactive technologies when I talk of AR/VR devices. The device has to have features of wearables and has to attempt interaction with the environment without specific or manual input. Apple Watch/Fitbit/Kinect/Immersive earphones/that multi-speaker set up in your garage are not AR devices. A multi-projector PicoWall type immersive display does not qualify here either.An opinion on the origins of the current AR/VR cycle2007-2009 iPhone. The adoption numbers shocked all big players not part of the Apple supply chain. Specifically HP/Intel/Google/Microsoft. They get hammered by investors. Pressure on them to manage perceptions and since they were losing the mobile war, they had to create new product segments. The pressure increased exponentially around 2012 when mobility products start eating away what was considered their safe, stable product lines - desktop and enterprise.The formative years for AR/VR were 2009-2012 when everyone in the industry started taking on risks, helped by a stabilizing economy and consistent/low rates. That's when we started seeing the zero-th generation of AR/VR noise - 2009 Microsoft Kinect, 2010 Intel IoT alliance, 2011 Google glass, 2012 Google Tango/Oculus/LeapMotion etc.Most of the investments appear to have been based on 'not getting left behind, again' fears. For example, its safe to say in 2016 that Kinect/LeapMotion is no longer considered a unique, or relevant entertainment experience. Glass was abandoned because Google did not see it becoming a consumer product. Oculus was acquired in a Pay-to-Play move by a social media company. etc.[I have ignored the relatively unknown, but interesting companies that existed for brief moments in this space. There are many.]I can only conclude that the industry is force-driving the AR/VR wagon, not market demand. The risk we run is in killing the niche fields where AR/VR truly are utilitarian. It's certainly possible that we are mistaking curiosity for intentions. So 2016 is going to be the bellwether year for 1st gen products. This is the year we get to determine what the markets truly care for and wants as features.Y=AR/VRNext we draw some boundaries around the AR/VR market:There is no market, no real numbers only WAG projections. No perception of utility in consumers. It's not even certain that near-eye systems will ever steer outside enterprise or niche applications. Gaming does not provide volumes if it costs far greater than ~300 USD (a reasonable, consumer-accepted baseline). We may be talking of VR/AR-arcades, but not much of a market.Market will coalesce around the niche 2016-early-adopters seem to be the most excited about. Most seem to focus on what it does for the enterprise.From the perspective of supply chains, this takes time. After initial low rate prototyping, Silicon/mechanical/electrical/integration/testing/shipping takes 2+ years before economies of scale, design version stability and reliable demand projections kick in. So supply chain coalescence may be expected about 2018/2019.Companies that tax, X won't show up for 4/5 years from now. 2020 being the earliest. There will be a lot of noise in between.Always black swans like Magic Leap. They have made the most respectable moves in the market along with Microsoft so far - Respectablilty based on engineering planning and strategic foresight of their moves.So my predictions have a 2020 horizon.Hardware subsystems and units in the chainLet's now consider the typical systems such devices need. An incomplete list follows. Items in the list may be lumped together into custom subsystems (for example, the S1 PCB in the Watch, which Apple marketing described as a 'chip' initially and now call 'SiP').Generic systemsPower/PMICsPower/BatteryPower/AmplifierEnvironment/Color/light/Humidity/Microphone arrayEnvironment capture/CameraMechanical/ChassisMechanical/InputElectrical/touchElectrical/InterconnectsMechanical/Flex boardElectrical/MainboardElectrical/Antenna and flexLocation/GPSTelecom/baseband processorsWirelessLAN/Wifi/PAN/BT/WLAN/PAN/non-standard radio/opticalMemory/NAND flashMemory/DRAMProcessor/SoCProcessor/Interface controllerProcessor/Video/graphicsProcessor/ASICs for custom subsystems, may be integrated into main SoCOrientation/Inertial/MagneticComponent level manufacturing/TestingSubsystem assemblySubsystem packagingDevice level packagingDevice level assemblyCleaning/testingQC metrologyPackagingDisplayOptical/Display optics - Always customOptical/Digital light engine/DLP/LCoS/uOLED/LBS/LCDOptical/ASIC or COTS drivers specific to digital light engineInputInput/Gesture/RGBD cameras/Shaped light TX+RX pairs/Input/Gesture/HF acousticsInput/Gesture/ASIC ProcessorInput/Gesture/Touch-free capacitive/EfieldInput/Gesture/Capacitive touchInput/Gesture/x-IMU or air mouse/pointer type devicesInput/AudioRX/Speech/MEMS Microphone/ArrayOutput/Haptic vibe/Bone conduction/Custom hapticsOptical/Gaze/IR illuminated/High frame rateOptical/Gaze tracking ASIC/processorAudioRX/Environment/MEMS/PiezoAudioRX/Environment/Directional collocationAudioTX/mech/Bone conductionAudioTX/acousticAudioTX/multi-channel acoustic pipes/immersiveFirmware (Some require RTOS eg. baseband or dedicated processors such as IMUs with some predictive filtering)Firmware - Algorithms/Sensor fusion subsystem/Maybe in ASIC or analog or digitalRecognizing that everything can be customized, which adds time + money + uncertainty, customization is typically minimized. Most of the items that appear on the list can be permuted/combined into groups that make sense only to the systems groups/designers.Items, like cleaning/testing/assembly may occur as needed and do add cost and time. Once you know how many units you think you are going to move, you can add automation, assembly robots, additional metrology, rent/acquire facilities, increase staff as required. But designing/programming/testing/ensuring regulatory compliance all take time and need to be factored. ODMs typically handle some aspects of this.Looking closely at the factors that shape user experienceIt may be noted that most of the items that appear in the Generic subsystems segment on the list are commodity and there is considerable experience in manufacturing such highly integrated systems and have stable supply chains. No company will create new 'taxes' based on those components because of pre-existing entrenchment and options.The latter systems, that focus on display (immersion) and natural interface experiences (interaction) are the difficult problems in AR/VR. So if anyone wants to levy a tax on the VR/AR market they need to focus on hardware or software IP for:Immersion,Interaction.From the VR supply chain perspective, some processing/tasks/interfacing may be handed over to tethered desktop systems (example: Oculus). A key issue is will the market like tethered wearable experiences? [I don't think so - the markets vote towards mobility in wearables. But there may be differing opinions on this. Possible that content becomes so pretty that people don't notice a tethered experience.] If tethered systems become the primary model, then entrenched performance computing players may maintain their lead.IMMERSIONThe immersion stack has static optics (lenses, assemblies, light pathways, filters/Anti-reflection/diffuse/specular coatings, waveguides, microlens arrays, optical beamformers, diffraction optics), a digitally controllable light engine and a processor that typically takes the RLE compressed image data from the graphics RAM and figures out how to switch the pixel states. Then there are display standards and algorithms and interfacing IP opportunities.Static optics - These are typically polymer, but may be glass. Generally molded. Sometimes machined. Requires high QA effort, but once baselines are met, results are consistent and easy to scale. Unless there's a unique lens manufacturing tech or coating materials science that optimizes volumes and costs with specific apps to VR/AR, you are unlikely to gain any traction trying to corner a market here. This is a high volumes, low margins business.Light engine - Some examples in AR are DLP (TI), LCoS (Holoeye/Himax), micro-OLED (e-magin), microemissive (LuxView, my employer), LBS (apparently Magic Leap, Microvision). You will find details on the technologies here.There are regular LCD/OLED display components that are used in VR (Oculus and maybe Meta), but they won't shrink and that's a problem.Each specific light engine technology has a unique approach to decoding and storing the video stream and updating the pixel state. Unless the light engine is a standard product like an LCD variant, the chosen display technology will force a buy-in into a whole ecosystem that includes processors and firmware and IP licensing.These typically constrain the form-factors of the final product design, so are one of the biggest decisions a designer has to take. The light engines/image quality are also primary factors that shape user experience.You may be aware that the displays are singularly the most expensive subsystem even in the highly commoditized smartphone market. So this is where the biggest opportunities are. These companies (and their partner orgs that handle integration) are critical to supply chains since they may offer fully-integrated, 'CAD-and-drop', custom designs. Once a market gets hooked to a certain device experience, they won't care for anything else. First STN, then IPS LCDs killing the possibly superior plasma tech or power efficient electrowetting/e-ink/Mirasol is an example.[Edit: A technical point on illumination - VR h/w are typically not contrast or brightness restricted since the display doesn't compete with ambient illumination. But AR (or mixed reality) devices need to be considerably brighter than the light admitted by the see-through optical visor. Since the visor is typically designed to reflect light into the user's eyes, it adds some inefficiencies as well. So the light engines and illumination sources (see below) typically need both high conversion efficiency along with native high lumen output. This is another point that makes the choice of light engine tech very critical to AR experiences.]Illumination sources - The light engines may also require independent illumination sources, color sequencing technology and semiconductor photonics/lighting (laser diodes, LEDs). There are entrenched players here and this club typically requires deep efforts and commitment. If you have new and unique IP addressing illumination, you will be immensely valuable.Display Processor - See light engine. If you have an ASIC team and contracts/IP licensing with GlobalFoundries/TSMC, you are valuable.Algorithms - Discussed later.The opportunities are big but an org needs complete control of all verticals here. You cannot source processed photonics from somewhere, optics from elsewhere and use COTS processors and still consider yourself valuable. There's a reason Magic Leap needs the funding it did. (The jury is still out on if that's enough). The more unique your stack, the more verticals you need to control.Let's look at examples - We know that Oculus and Meta are based on LCD technology. Companies like CastAR appear to be using DLP. I have heard conflicting opinions on the HoloLens tech stack - some say DLP, based on maturity and display contrast, others say not-DLP because DLP is power hungry [Edit: Apparently LCoS - still power hungry and inefficient illumination]. Microsoft's patents apparently indicate a homebrew, with ODG+Nokia Lensing IP handling manufacture.TI has had the DLP market cornered for a long time. Japanese/Korean/Taiwanese companies have LCD cornered. LCoS is still too spread out, there are possible consolidation targets there (specially after Google dropped Glass). LBS is risky, because human factors. Micro-OLED is not bright enough. Samsung has regular OLED cornered, but like LCD, OLED doesn't shrink magically. I won't comment on Emissive micro-displays. Micro-LCD is being worked out but Japan/Taiwan/Koreans can't be beat; only acquired - And they consolidate/disperse all the time.2. INTERACTION.The interaction stack is built on permutations/combinations of sensors and algorithms. The primary intent with AR is to allow the displayed digital content to interact with and react to a user's environment. This is not as critical for VR, but you still need to detect the user's posture to enable immersion and reactive display content (what Oculus refers to as 'motion to photon').Sensor hardware - Publicly documented hardware may include simple RGB cameras, depth-sensing RGB+D cameras (PrimeSense, RealSense, Kinect), MEMS ultrasonic array emitters/receivers (Przybyla's Chirp), RF TX/RX pairs (Project Soli), mini-IR/laser/Time-of-Flight sensors (Microsoft), MEMS acoustic microphone arrays (Akustica, Bosch), capacitive field sensors (Microchip), MEMS MARG (magnetic angular rate gravity, from AD, TI, InvenSense, Freescale...), pressure, altitude, sensors as arrays among many other types. These sensors enable the system to understand the environment and user intent.One key insight that I think is unique - You can pay for high-accuracy sensors but write crap algorithms, or you can pay for low accuracy sensors and write excellent algorithms to get similar results. Leap motion is an example of the former, and the Apple IMU team is an example of the latter. Google's acquisition of Lumedyne shows which way the industry is headed.Scoping the product experience is also very critical. Just because you can have 20 sensors on your device doesn't translate to a better user experience. Multi-sensor algorithms are sophisticated and still need much development. Many orgs like AD, Freescale, Bosch finally, after like 15 years in the wild, have started to include quaternion f/w with their IMU chips - but too late - they don't work on arrays (because uncertainty propagation, parasitic calib. errors).Algorithms - The algorithms themselves are a big opportunity. The image processing required from depth sensing cameras is still considered a heavy load and requires specific co-processors and optimized architectures. Two core problems - 1. Environment mapping/segmentation, 2. Gesture recognition.The algorithms+sensors are still not accurate enough. Since these sensors drive the display content, there is little scope in ever processing this data online (because latency) like how we deal with speech. The old IP that has been granted is fairly useless, though legally still menacing. I expect a new wave in fusion, SLAM and sensor hardware quality to negate this barrier.There needs to be more psycho-optics studies on how these displays and algorithms interact with the human visual system and how they affect us physiologically over repeated and/or prolonged exposures. I am not certain if everyone will perceive the same displays similarly or if individual variations in eyesight will ruin experiences for some. Example: How does dominant eye affect near-eye display perception? There is opportunity here for ophthalmology to drive a part of the discussion on algorithms design.You will also find a lot more snake-oil here than anywhere else. Academic research is very difficult to translate to production devices. The simulated CGI experiences that marketing shows us are not what people see in the wild (Kinect/ LeapMotion). That's one big perception hurdle to cross.Algorithm co-processors - The algorithms may be implemented in silicon + PROM (Microchip/MGC, Maxim/21100) or they may be licensed as firmware (Bosch). Such implementation opportunities may be converted into a segmented toolchain that may be licensed by independent or smaller vendors. In a way this would be similar to the fabless/foundry IP license and production models.Metrology and calibration - This is the equivalent of the hard/soft iron and lifetime calibration issues in IMUs. Error rates and reliability are very, very critical here since they ruin usability and experience. There are studies that pretty much predict why technological leaps such as the Glass fail in the real world (Dix et al, Human computer interaction 2005). Most of my hesitation in being enthusiastic about this segment comes from this UX perspective.So the company that makes a product that implements a few features right 100% of the time may actually take the spotlight away from something like HoloLens which implements lots of features that fail now and then. Graceful failures don't mean very much. Reliable failures do, but someone has to figure out how to make this work.[My personal opinion is that vision based approaches for gestures will never achieve the reliability that is required for high volumes adoption in the time-window it is required in. They are simply trying to solve the wrong problem. But I am biased.]Ecosystem opportunities - A big opportunity from a devices perspective is inaccessible to most small players - An ecosystem to use the AR/VR product inside. Only Google and Microsoft have this. And so would Apple if it decided to release something - which it still may.So that was the background. Let's answer the questions based on that.1. Companies likely to tax the AR/VR market.The usual light engine suspects - TI, if we go the DMD/DLP way, or the Korea/Japan/Taiwan LCD consortiums if we use LCDs or microLCDs. If LCoS makes an entry, then you may have Himax. Whoever controls GaN/GaAs wafer bonding and 3D stacking technology also has a play here. Samsung, with all its subsidiaries and manufacturing partners will definitely be taxing everyone. Sony/Sharp's fortunes may reverse as well (I highly doubt it will be significant for a full recovery). Just about every pico projector or small form factor display specialist company may have a play here.A note on LCoS is that it has some unique wavelength selectivity and phase modulation characteristics. It will find unique volume applications for sure, but it has to mature (for example, ferroelectric LCoS) in time for it to be viable for AR/VR.Then there are the sensor/A2Ds/ADCs semiconductor manufacturers at play - All the MEMS and optical sensors companies. Among them, the one with the best accuracy and precision may win. Google has a march over other companies with the Lumedyne acquisition, but not sure how mature their lines are.Semiconductor photonics companies like Philips or Maruwa or Osram or Sumitomo are going to benefit if they just try and play nice with the AR/VR companies instead of focusing on their energy efficiency marketing.Metrology software companies that provide enterprise and production support with standardized services for sensor algorithms and metrology and/or device calibration would be successful. Bosch is an example. There's several companies in the Illinois area as well. Prototyping silicon has reliability issues that may be solved with standardized outsourced testing services.There are opportunities for SFF computing and GPU companies to release plug-n-play modular hardware that ensure that consumer grade laptops/desktops are compatible with VR/AR systems. USB 3.x standards appear to be a great way to enable such technology. It is likely that there will be consortium based standards created to enable such channels, and such standards will be used to levy a tax. (See note below for why entrenched desktop GPU players may not have much of a lead, but mobility/low power IP core licensing has strong opportunities.)New actuator technology, like bone conduction, needs to be examined a little closer. There are things that can be done here with multi-actuator setups that don't seem to have been explored yet. Companies that already specialize in BC speakers (Dayton for example) should see a steady flow of custom design RFQs. Somebody's going to eventually go towards a powerglove type solution (again!) and incorporate gyroscopic actuators (spinning inertial platters) for haptic feedback. Those that can make them small will have considerable play.In addition to passive optics, some, more mature and larger, technology companies are considering active optics. The usual approach is to use polymer thin film composites of nematic LCs and others organic/inorganic birefringent materials to construct patterned active layers sandwiched between glass and TCO layers to construct waveguides. An example may be DO.Biometry companies and statistical human body model companies should also see better margins. The fashion market will dictate a few trends here, but I have no idea where to even begin with that.Biocompatible polymer companies should also see a surge in inquires depending on the weight and fit of the final design. Fitbit had issues. So I expect 3M or Eastman to pick up a piece of the pie, along with their traditional plastics lines. There could be a move to natural fibers as well but I have no idea of who the players here are.The demand for software developers skilled in sensor implementation will continue its upswing, and I suspect to the point where many of these jobs go offshore. So off-shore consultants need to figure out how to incorporate such skills in their pools. Initially, it won't be as straight-forward as learning a framework - You will need graphics, mobility GPU, physics and EE/DSP skills.Big players like Intel will keep trying to force their ideas on people, and they may succeed. Entries of companies like Apple into the fray will definitely tip the carts for every other company not a part of their supply chain. You will see smaller companies without strong tech stacks disappear or get acquired in firesales.The receptivity of the Chinese market is also another huge factor. If a small player wins there, then the companies in North America may not have a chance to adapt to the China-internal supply chain efficiencies. But that's a generic statement true for many segments. What will be interesting is if AR/VR gets forced into a novelty segment like the Pico projectors were. And what I do know is that they, China, are looking at a very different, bigger, picture and running in a completely different direction from the US or the Japanese/Koreans. It may pay to not be caught inside the North California feedback loop.A general point - the chicken or the egg problem - Big manufacturing doesn't do small prototyping. But Small manufacturing requires cash upfront, and don't extend deep credit to small prototyping customers. Small companies that have big ideas but little to no credit generally find it difficult to execute on the actual vision - Some specs and tolerances are just proportional to money. Some manufacturing partners that look at the big picture and take on the risks may find themselves getting lucky. Hon Hai is doing just this. The ones based in the US or Korea seem to be only providing lip service.Physical FMCE retail stores like BestBuy, Apple/Microsoft Stores that showcase AR/VR and personalized wearables experiences are going to be critical as well. There is simply no other or better way to market such highly personal experiences. So capturing/partnering with distribution channels is critical if you don't have your own. This is also good for physical retail, because foot traffic+ecosystem sales. I expect BestBuy will do really well.2. Supply chain dependencies.GaN GaAs wafer and quality, availability and scaling to meet consumer demand.Efficient illumination sources (LEDs, laser diodes). For non-emissive sources, the light has to be generated by something. Most people are unaware of how critical illumination sources and the semiconductor companies that make them are. There are maybe two, at most three, orgs that can actually provide sources at scale.Precision diamond turning equipment for lens and mold manufacture.Micro forming/micro deep drawing/micro injection molding and stamping tech IP. Apple is the only Co with an internal specialist group on this. Most people don't understand this end of the business, but it's critical because miniaturization/compactification requires heavily non-ISO parts for fasteners (screws, for example: low strength steel Y-wing screws, w/ 0.2mm threads on Apple Watch), latches and rocker/slider/MOM switch mechanisms and custom connectors (eg. hidden 6 pin port on Apple Watch).Foundries with stable MEMS, FinFET, <20nm design rules and processing. Anyone can flat out say GlobalFoundries, TSMC and Samsung Semi are going to make money. Their recent investments (>$50B aggregate, 2012-now) reveal the same.Sensor design IP accessibility - The IP needs to not just be good, but defensible against frivolous claims. Verified/reliability approved designs are immensely valuable.Sensor fusion/SLAM algo IP accessibility. Many AR/VR hw orgs start building MVPs using barely functional, first-principles algorithms. The bare functions from open-source libs are okay, but don't scale well. It's easier to pay for specialist IP than develop self-calib. routines or wait for years to get SLAM working correctly. Example - Bradski was one of Abovitz's first hires. There's about 100 people in the world with the know-how to do this well. Chances are, they are not in your team.3D packaging IP and industrial equipment, for System-in-Package design. Very few orgs specialize in 3D packaging design/simulation.EMC/EMI and EDA simulation tooling. Critical because of body-proximity and tight packaging with components physically on top of each other.Wrap around ultra-high-density flex, materials and manufacturers. For flexes to be 'wrappable' or bendable, the traces should not fail when bent but be thin enough to bend easily. These are antagonistic design criteria and difficult to manufacture reliably at scale.Small form factor interconnect manufacturers. Another thankless, behind-the-scenes role, but this is the reason devices become thinner or smaller, not Moore's law. Smaller semi chips do help, but reliability in IC packaging, molds and interconnect technology is what allows the signals to transfer. Very few specialist companies can handle high volumes custom interconnects.Bandwidth/fiber/telecom companies. Also multi hop/mesh network h/w f/w developer companies. IoT needs a display and AR/VR setups along with smartphones may be it. There's a huge effort behind the scenes for control of this space which is seen as high growth. Entrenched players are leading this effort. Not all are traditional networking companies.Human factors analysis - Human bodies have statistical dimension distributions - Dreyfuss' text Measure of man and woman doesn't give you digitally usable data. Companies specialize in collecting statistical body data and rendering them to useful forms (including CAD, finite elements and point clouds). Then there are gait, form, structure, posture datasets that designers love to have. This industry is bound to benefit from all kinds of wearables.Fab cycles for fabless, smaller players.Polymer orgs and their consultants. Polymers and specific recipes are used in everything from mechanical to optics to packaging to flexes to fibers. Dupont's Kapton XC used on Apple's stealth flexes is an example.Industrial optic metrology/lightfield homogeneity/illumination PSF measurement tool makers. Cohu/Delta design for line equipment, Nikon, Hexagon, a bunch of European companies.Regulatory policies on eye fatigue/illumination exposure. There will be guidelines issued and there will be some posturing. See note on health risks below.Physical retail stores for distribution channelsNote on regulations and health risks (cc. Colin Jensen)Head-Mounted devices will fall under both the FCC and the FDA mandates (21CFR1000.15). Device-makers will try to force an FCC-only oversight by disavowing any medical applications - but the FD&C sec. 531 makes it clear that such devices should require FDA oversight. However in the end this may be a matter of legal clarification that really cannot be predicted.FCC regulations are murky and I am unsure of how the agency arrives at its conclusions. FDA operations are clearer, or maybe I am just more familiar, so I focus on that.Broadly - The first gen products will have standard disclaimers and warningsremoving/reducing liability (<30mins of usage, >16 yrs of age etc). The FDA as a matter of practice does not 'go after' nascent businesses unless it is egregious, or it receives complaints or reports of concern from the practicing medical community. It will first study the physiological effects under expert oversight, then issue guidances, finally create regulations and standards that equipment manufacturers would have to follow. This takes time and industry comments are always sought and taken into consideration.Unless deemed absolutely dangerous, commerce may be allowed until guidances areissued. If the expert panel finds significant chances for injury to occur, it will select a classification for such near-eye devices (Class I being safest, III being worst). Thenear eye industry will fight to get their products classified Class I at worst.The LCD/DLP based devices may be declared class I depending upon the raw lumens they output among other factors. Many AR devices may actually not require classification at all, specially if they are battery operated - Because limited power restricts the illumination output. However this is not true for tethered devices such as those from Oculus. They may try to increase their display brightness which may increase health risks (see below).Google/Magic Leap, if they use laser diodes as sources, may get a Class II (mandatory 501k filing since there are no equivalent products that shine lasers into your eyes for long periods of time). The increased regulatory costs may be passed down to the customers. Regulation may also force such tethered/high lumen near eye devices to be sold under medical or occupational guidance etc.Health risks - Broad categories are(A) Simulator sickness(B) Repeated/prolonged exposure.Simulator sickness is an ongoing discussion - Some are of the opinion that initial sickness can be overcome through sitting+acclimatizing over time. They assume that this initial barrier won't restrict adoption. I disagree, but won't dwell on this.Prolonged exposure - The physics of head mounted systems, with their brightness, near eye lensing, moderate temperature, pressure and electromagnetic exposure dosage and the straps+weight of the system should definitely require physiological/ ophthalmological oversight. For example, some wrap around strap-based designs do increase mechanical pressure or physical stress on superficial temporal, occipital and angular/facial veins/arteries. The physics (inertial motion, eccentric mass distribution) of head mounted gears will lead to conditions similar or worse than what commonly cause 'helmet whiplash' or gorilla arms for controllers. Also RSI is to be expected with unsupported necks, arms.Note these are the obvious issues - there will be others such as those pertaining to blink reflex, ocular hypertension, trauma on general orbital systems and many others. I don't have expertise to assess these.The risks will have to be evaluated against the benefits. Many concerns may be addressable through appropriate engineering and quality control. I only hope that systems designers follow a 'do no harm' or ALARP principle and consider such issues in their system design.Is medical regulation a barrier to entry? Depends. Not for most players, but certainly for the homebrewers. The onus is on the very first devices to show that they are not dangerous. After that every other manufacturer only needs to claim equivalence with the first device. This may still deter some players not familiar with policies and hinder investments in such players.NB - A class III classification is highly unlikely, but could prove very dangerous to the AR/VR industry.However I expect there will be no regulatory roadblocks until at least 2018 or later.Note on content channel and app-store lock-in'sAll major players (Microsoft/Hololens/Windows Store, Google / Magic Leap / Play store...) will have their own content channels. Hard to expect Steam or any non-affiliated channels - those not affiliated with either a major h/w or OS maker - to succeed; Example: Leap Motion, Amazon's app store didn't do too well. Another example, developer's funds - like those created by Highland for Leap motion don't work out to create a natural ecosystem when competing against integrated app stores.A generic, system-independent app store faces huge issues, as was initially demonstrated by the fragmentation in Google's play store where many apps didn't work the same or at all on different versions of android phones. So platforms like OpenVR face big obstacles. First gen h/w products with heavy subsystem and performance fragmentation at the h/w and OS level cannot simply be virtualized away in software at the outset imo.This point becomes pronounced specially if your display tech just uses different physics to get the information into the users eyes (Magic Leap - lightfield, Oculus et al - stereoscopy displays, Hololens TBD) or uses different types of sensors and recognition algorithms with different levels of resolution/accuracy to capture input. If your immersion/ interaction stacks are different, you would introduce huge inefficiencies/bloat in trying to virtualize all possible hardware combinations into a single API. Some UI choices may stop making sense on different stacks/controller choices.On why desktop GPU companies don't have a guaranteed taxBecause they are not common to all AR/VR graphics pipelines.Gaming based VR rigs may need them, but baseline h/w margins are low and the larger market is not receptive to premium performance h/w.Market drivers may be low power/small footprint/mobility and cost, once baseline performance is guaranteed.Many h/w companies would prefer to develop their own low power SoCs eventually, specialized to their own tech stack rather than pay premium for generic systems (see point about integrated verticals; Example-Apple and PowerVR/Imagination Tech IP, Cadence/Tensilica, Synopsys..). Traditional GPUs are good for generic development with hardware abstracted away, but performance optimization starts at architectural design. [I am a biased rotten h/w guy, you can tell]You can mix and match IPs and foundries. Sub-20nm FinFETs are now stable and a big deal for next gen mobility SoCs. So depending upon an org's commitment+strategy, it's not that difficult to develop application-optimized graphics engines at the system design level while still getting next gen fab. Reducing generational dependencies on external architectures is generally a good idea and gives you better control in targeting experiences.I think the position that 'desktop-class GPUs are mandatory' comes from assuming that VR/AR==Performance gaming and Oculus; Not casual gaming, not enterprise, not productivity. I doubt this.From a display h/w perspective - Pixels need sufficient physical transition time to be able to switch really fast. Only microLEDs have the kind of refresh rates mentioned in Binstock's article in engineering stable designs. And liquid crystals don't switch that fast, because hysteresis and its a mechanical torsion we are talking about. Ferroelectric LCs do, but are not out of the labs yet. DLPs can, but they have ringing and pull-in stiction issues that they have to spend more time in fixing otherwise you get jitter and color breakage (smaller the pixels == worse that problem). That's one of the reasons why solid state photonics is such a huge deal. LC based displays may work for AR with selective region based decompression/refresh, but AR doesn't commonly use LCDs. Please note the disclosure below.So current gen displays don't support insane, >90Hz-peak refreshes - This implies that there's no need for 120FPS GPU support.Magic Leap's LBS tech may also surpass the refresh rates (90Hz) easily, and they would definitely need a custom SoC to fit in their mobility design.Note on '150Hz' FPS that eyes can detect - That's a number that apparently a WoW gaming forum spewed out and I believe is inaccurate. Eye's don't scan in consistent frames (see Andrew Watson's work at NASA on physiology of display perception, or Holmqvist et al, Eye tracking-comprehensive guide to methods and measure 2015). Physiologically, if we had to converge to a number it would be much higher and we risk forcing multiple concepts of biological photon sensitivity, contrast response and vision/motion perception onto a not very useful generic concept of hardware frame rates.The actual physiological processes of vision perception are very relevant to near-eye display people, mind you. But that's another discussion in another place.I realize I focused the most unglamorous aspects of product design and lifecycles here, but hey, this is what it takes. Some poor sod has to sit down and figure these things out so we can dream our rainbow dreams in powerpoints, clean APIs and rendered CAD images.I deliberately avoid taking specific names, except GlobalFoudries/TSMC/Samsung Semi, because lock-in depends on who's willing to take the biggest bet on this market. Many orgs that have a play here haven't shown deep commitment yet, except maybe Microsoft and Google.Disclosure: I design, build, analyze Micro-electromechanical systems and optoelectronic hardware for display/imaging technology used in ultra-miniature (pico) light engines and sensor technology for human-computer interfaces at Ostendo, a display technology company in SoCal that also makes near eye products. I invented a sensor+algorithm stack called deepSense with applications in AR/VR/Biomed/robotics and real life. It's just the greatest thing since Nyan cat. I am fully of that opinion.