Providing hard numbers supporting claims that IT experts have made for months, a Dallas-based research firm that focuses on digital and home connectivity segments is reporting today that 3D virtual worlds have evolved into a sustainable industry.

 

Officials from Park Associates predict that 33 million users will register for virtual worlds by 2013, drawing a wide variety of providers and companies to the relatively new technology.

 

According to Yuanzhe Cai, the firm’s director of digital media and gaming, 3D virtual world platform companies, full-service agencies and operators form a viable base that provides services to businesses, media companies, advertisers and consumers.

 

“But content and application developers and service providers are becoming increasingly important,” Cai said.

 

Generally speaking, virtual worlds are computer-based environments that simulate reality so that users can move around and interact with avatars. One popular example of a virtual world is the Second Life. Launched in 2003, Second Life is an advanced social networking virtual world where users can explore, meet others, participate in activities and even create and swap services or items.

 

In business, virtual worlds now are being used as a cost-effective way to advertise. Apple (News - Alert), for example, created an online store within Second Life.

 

Business also can use virtual worlds as gathering places.

 

Earlier this year, TMC President Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) visited communications and technology company Nortel at its research and development headquarters in Ottawa, and was walked through a virtual world for the company that includes 3D stereo sound.

 

As Tehrani reported on his blog, Nortel (News - Alert) officials told him they’re taking the Second Life model and turning it into a “a secure enterprise virtualization environment.”

 

“They truly believe that telephones will be replaced by virtual world communications which is richer and has visual cues allowing you to see if others are paying attention,” Tehrani writes. “This would mean you can communicate visually regardless of device. Avatars in fact are preferable to live video in many cases as there are times you are working at home and your attire does not lend itself to co-worker meetings via video.”

 

Nortel impressed Tehrani with its sound quality. Though the Toronto-based company isn’t the first to push for virtual worlds in businesses, its focus on making safe and secure environments is a differentiator, he says.

 

Tehrani’s Nortel visit followed a blog entry, nearly one year ago, where he highlighted IBM (News - Alert) as a major proponent of virtual worlds. The software giant had just announced that it would staff its virtual business center with workers in Asia around-the-clock on weekdays.

 

Paul Summa, IBM’s general manager of ibm.com, told Tehrani at the time that there had been a huge surge in the virtual environment.

 

Tehrani writes: “IBM’s Virtual Business Center’s technical support library gives visitors access to technical information including Redbooks and Systems Journals. One advantage of going to a virtual world to get your information is that finding it can be faster and easier than just navigating a web site. In the virtual Business Center you can browse the 3-D book shelves, view a 3-D book or just ask the librarian, just like in the real world.”

 

In the year since then, Parks Associates officials say, a handful of entities have emerged to provide activities, applications and content that make virtual worlds more attractive to users.

 

Yet virtual worlds now require greater amounts of content and applications, Cai said, to avoid becoming “empty shopping malls.”

 

“The industry needs to move beyond its obsession with user-generated content and make 3D virtual worlds more interesting to average consumers,” said Cai, who contributed to the report, titled “Virtual Worlds: the Internet of Avatars.”