The AR Round-up: April 2018

Here’s what you missed in the AR+VR space for April 2018

Numbers

• IDC expects AR and VR headsets to grow dramatically. It’s latest predictions suggest that 2018 will see sales hit 12.4 million units, up from 8 million in 2017. And VR and AR headset sales are expected to jump an average of 50% annually over the next five years, hitting 68.9 million in 2022.
• Sensor Tower estimates that over 13 million apps built with ARKit have been downloaded since the AR platform’s launch in September. Not surprisingly, nearly half of these downloads were for AR-enabled games.
• CCS Insights forecasts 22 million virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets and glasses will be sold in 2018, with fivefold growth to 121 million units in 2022
• Location-based entertainment (LBE) is expected to help take VR mainstream and according to a new report from FutureSource the LBE VR space is predicted to surpass $800 Million in revenue by 2022.
• ABI Research’s latest report finds that VR in retail and marketing will generate $1.8 Billion in 2022
• ABI Research estimates that global smartglasses for use in the automotive industry will hit 1.7 million in 2022, and the total automotive AR market is expected to grow at CAGR of 177% to reach $5.5 billion by 2022
• AR/VR market transition begins as startups raise record $3.6 billion in the past 12 months according to Digi-Capital (Venturebeat)

Money

Big news

• L’Oreal makes its first tech acquisition with leading beauty AR company Modiface (The Verge)
• Google reportedly buys/acquihires Lytro (The Verge)
• Bose Launches Bose Ventures to Invest up to $50M in Startups (FINSMES)

Platforms & Tools

• Blue Vision Labs, which builds ‘collaborative’ AR, emerges from stealth with $14.5M led by GV (TechCrunch)
• Ubiquity6 raises $10.5M from top investors to build a deeper augmented reality (TechCrunch)
• 6D.ai funded to build the AR Cloud (Forbes)
• Snap reportedly bought its very own 3D game engine, PlayCanvas (TechCrunch)
• Chinese AI startup SenseTime Group Ltd. has raised $600 million (Bloomberg)
• Mapillary, a mapping startup out of Malmö, is stepping up growth after raising $15 million Series B led by BMW i Ventures (Business Insider)
• NIKE, Inc. Acquires Computer Vision Leader Invertex (BusinessWire)

Hardware

• Digital Doman acquires VR Manufacturer 3Glasses (VR Focus)
• BeBop Sensors receives $10 million by Bullpen Capital (VR Focus)
• Exiii Raises $750K for Haptic VR Gloves with Force Feedback (Road to VR)

Applications & Solutions

• ActiView, HR virtual reality solution, raises $6.5M (Globes)
• Augmented reality-powered home services startup Streem raises another $2M (GeekWire)
• UK-based vTime raises $7.6 million to get people to create memories inside VR (TechCrunch)
• TheWaveVR wraps $6M Series A to fuel its immersive, social VR music app (TechCrunch)
• Carvana acquires Car360 for $22M to improve its car-buying platform (TechCrunch)

News

Hardware

• Vive Pro Gets AR Capabilities thanks to HTC’s New Tools for Front-facing Cameras (Road to VR)
• Magic Leap ships first set of devices to developers (Bloomberg)
• Qualcomm’s new headset with eye-tracking ships to developers later this year (The Verge)
• Noitom debuts Hi5 VR gloves for enterprise (Tom’s Hardware)
• ODG’s Newest Wearable Allows FedEx Pilots to Use Augmented Reality to Navigate Emergency Situations (Next Reality)
• Leap Motion’s new AR headset prototype is high-res, low-cost and a little bug-eyed (TechCrunch)
• Intel cancels Vaunt (TechCrunch)
• Snapchat’s second-gen Spectacles hit the FCC (TechCrunch)
• High Fidelity and NeoSensory Launch Haptic Jacket, Bringing Realistic Touch to Virtual Reality (PR Newswire)

Platform & Tools

• Google adds Oculus Rift support for Chrome virtual reality apps (The Verge)
• Snapchat Bulks Up Lens Studio with Face Templates, Giphy Integration & More (Next Reality)
• Envrmnt launches AR Designer (Nasdaq)
• Mozilla launches Firefox Reality browser for AR/VR (Mozilla)
• Microsoft releases first HoloLens update in over a year (Next Reality)
• Google opens up Maps for game developers to use to create location-based games (The Verge)

Applications & Solutions

• Over 85 ARCore apps are now in Google Play including Overstock, Ikea, Wayfair, New York Times and more (Android Police)
• Star Wars holochess comes to the iPhone with ARKit (The Verge)
• Eminem launches AR app (TechCrunch)
• Snapchat Introduces 3 New Capabilities of Its Augmented Reality Lenses With ‘Shoppable AR’ (AdWeek)
• Facebook Stories adds funky AR drawing and Instagram’s Boomerang (TechCrunch)
• Facebook updates its avatars to look more “lifelike” (Engadget)
• Zara rolls out augmented reality app for shoppers (Refinery 29)
• Bareburger’s launches Augmented Reality Menu via Snapchat (Next Reality)
• The New York Times launches David Bowie augmented reality feature (NYTimes)

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