Market Reality: Apple's AR Toolkit Is Slowly Catching on While Google & Snap Invest in More AR Development Tools
The business of enabling the development of augmented reality experiences appears to be as lucrative as AR app development itself.
The business of enabling the development of augmented reality experiences appears to be as lucrative as AR app development itself.
Google's AI investment arm, Gradient Ventures, has joined a $10.5 million round of funding for Ubiquity6 and its platform for shared augmented reality experiences, just weeks after Google's GV fund backed a competing AR cloud platform.
Apple's TrueDepth camera made its debut in the premium-priced iPhone X late last year, and since then, the reviews have been pretty positive. Now, Apple might be preparing to make the Animoji-friendly sensors available in more iPhones, as well as the iPad Pro, later this year.
Investors are ready to throw their money at augmented and virtual use cases that demonstrate a business purpose and a return on investment.
As expected, Magic Leap closed a Series D round of equity funding, raising $502 million from new and existing investors. Less expected, however, were a fresh set of rumors that the company's first devices could ship within six months.
As augmented reality gains popularity, the demand for delivering related services and generating content increases. This is demonstrated by a pair of investments from the past week, one in the expansion of a technology lab and another in the form of seed funding for a content studio.
What began as a highly successful Kickstarter campaign has all but ended, according to an updated report by Polygon. CastAR, comprised of a few people from Valve's former research and hacking arm, has released a large portion of their team. Only a small core of the group remains, trying to sell the technology they have created.
Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. This week's column starts with a stock price that's performing well for one company — one that HoloLens developers should know quite well.
In December of last year, UK-based Zappar successfully raise $84,356 for their ZapBox mixed reality headset—over $50,000 more than their goal. Well, they just blew that sum out of the water when they announced this morning that they've closed a Series A round of funding with $3.75 million.
As we slowly approach its January 3 start date, CES 2017 seems to be shaping up to be an exciting year for smart glasses as well as augmented and mixed reality.
After a rough run of news, smartglasses maker North still has the confidence of investors, as evidenced by its latest round of funding.
Magic Leap and Samsung are putting their money where their augmented reality plans are, with the former acquiring an AR collaboration technology and the latter funding a waveguide display maker.
While some widely praised immersive computing initiatives at Google are shutting down, over at Epic Games things are just ramping up, and it involves quite a bit of cash available to indie augmented reality developers and startups alike.
Four months have passed since Mojo Vision emerged from stealth, and we are no closer to seeing exactly what its "invisible computing" technology looks like.
The augmented reality industry had enough twists this week to surprise even M. Night Shyamalan.
With Pokémon GO as its cash cow and the forthcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Niantic Real World Platform promising future revenue streams, Niantic has convinced investors to bet on its flavor of augmented reality
The North remembers...that smartglasses are the future! Game of Thrones jokes aside, the smartglasses startup opened its doors, and we visited its Brooklyn store to get our hands the consumer-focused Focals smartglasses.
Last week, Twilio showed off how avatar-based chat communications will work on the Magic Leap One, and now a new startup has unveiled yet another way that augmented reality telepresence and remote collaboration can take place on the device.
Fresh off shipping an augmented reality game for Magic Leap, Resolution Games has farmed another $7.5 million in funding through a Series B round.
This week, Next Reality published profiles on the leaders in augmented reality hardware industry, with Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz topping the list. So, it should be no surprise that two app makers want to align themselves with Magic Leap's flagship product.
For the augmented reality hardware industry to progress towards the consumer segment, display technology needs to get better. Investors recognize that, and they are showing AR display makers the money.
Investors aren't keen to throw money at a new technology sector without at least some hope of a significant return on their investment in the future. That's why a recent run of activity within the augmented reality business space has stoked some new optimism among the financial community.
With an eye toward future iPhone X-focused augmented reality functions, Apple's new investment in one of its components vendors will increase production capacity for the technology behind its TrueDepth camera, but could also apply to its future AR ambitions.
This week, two companies looking to capitalize on the growing augmented reality industry, raised funding from starkly different sources.
We continue to field stories underscoring the strong trends of Investment in augmented reality in various sectors. This week, one company strengthens their offerings to the enterprise sector, while two other companies capitalize on the promise presented by augmented reality to consumers – specifically, in gaming.
Upskill, an enterprise software developer for industrial augmented reality applications, recently received an influx of funding and a major vote of confidence from two of their top customers.
Learn everything you could possibly want to know about the internet, multiplayer game Evony with tutorials from EvonyTutorials. Watch this video tutorial to learn how to play Evony - Ballistas vs NPC. See exactly what the game Evony is!
Blind is a Limbo-like platformer on A10 Games where the player must platform through 2D environment that is largely concealed to them. This video will walk you through all of the game's 21 levels.
Chinese calligraphy is amongst the most beautiful but also most difficult word art forms in the world, and practitioners spend years honing their skills, even devoting their entire lives to daily practice.
Saving the world an be costly and in Final Fantasy VII, a part of leveling up is to get the funds you need to buy weapons, potions, and materia in your quest to defeat the villain Sephiroth. In this now classic Final Fantasy game, selling mastered materia can be extremely lucrative, particularly All materia. Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to get quick gil by defeating rare Magic Pots in a specific area of the game.
Tacking is an important part of windsurfing and, of course, it's best to start learning when there are light winds. Usually, at this level, most time is devoted to the gybe move, and the carve tack is a variation of this, a transition that you need and will give you the confidence to get on smaller boards and go out in stronger winds. When done well, the tack can also look impressive. Watch Sam Ross teach you how.
It's been almost a year since all major banks blockaded WikiLeaks from recieving funds. It's their only source of actual revenue, so help out if you can.
Despite its status as a hot commodity amongst emerging technologies, the augmented reality industry is not immune to the ebbs and flows that occur in every industry.
While Magic Leap has gained attention for its ability to raise capital, the company (now with an actual product on the market) still faces an uphill climb against the titans of the industry.
Don't hide in a cave when the market is down. Find stocks that will pay off when the bull makes its return.
Transferring money can be quite tricky, but keeping track of it can be even trickier. MoneyWell makes transferring money from one account to another incredibly easy. This video tutorial for beginner users shows you how to work with transfers in the budgeting software.
Having emerged as one of the leading augmented reality video conferencing apps, Spatial is ready to improve upon the experience.
This week, Snapchat parent Snap came closer to fulfilling its smartglasses destiny by adding new 3D content capabilities to its third-generation Spectacles. At the same time, the now defunct Meta Company continued its fall from grace, as a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the patent infringement case against the Meta 1 and Meta 2 headsets.
The venture arms of Samsung and Verizon Ventures, along with Comcast, are among the strategic investors backing startup Light Field Lab and its glasses-free holographic displays in a $28 million Series A funding round
There's no shortage of augmented reality platforms for remote video assistance, but startup Streem is looking to give its offering a leg up with an infusion of new technology.