AR Business, Investments, & Executive Moves


News: AWE AR & VR Conference Still On (For Now), with Special Safety Measures in Place, Here's What You Need to Know
The worldwide health crisis around the coronavirus has gripped the live events industry, particularly in the tech sector, with the cancellations of Mobile World Congress, the Game Developers Conference, Facebook's F8, Google I/O and now South by Southwest.

Exclusive: Nreal Changes Company Name, Amid Magic Leap Legal Battle Unknown Chinese Parent Company Revealed
The still-unfolding story of China's Nreal augmented reality startup continues to develop, with each turn uncovering another unexpected wrinkle.

News: Talespin Raises $15 Million from HTC & Cornerstone to Build AR & VR Training Solutions
While the rest of the world is scrambling to figure out how to adopt augmented reality and VR tools for remote meetings, one company is building its war chest to serve the growing space of corporate clients who need this kind of immersive computing training.

News: Facebook Cancels Annual F8 Developer Conference Due to Coronavirus Concerns
Facebook has announced the cancelation of its annual F8 developer conference, citing concerns around the developing coronavirus health crisis.

News: Apple Reveals Upcoming iPhone Shortage in Wake of Coronavirus Issues
If you thought the news coming from China about the coronavirus might not affect your daily life in Europe and in the Americas, think again.

News: Nreal Pauses Smartglasses Production as Coronavirus Issues Impact China, Amazon, Facebook, Intel, & Nvidia Exit MWC
The deadly Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has not only has claimed lives in China but also has caused disruption around the globe, particularly in the tech industry. To date, the virus has claimed more than 1,000 lives in China, according to the country's officials.

News: Spatial Raises $14 Million to Improve Augmented Reality Telepresence Platform for HoloLens & Magic Leap
Having emerged as one of the leading augmented reality video conferencing apps, Spatial is ready to improve upon the experience.

News: What Apple's Record Wearables Earnings Could Mean for Its AR Smartglasses Future
This week's Apple earnings offered a report of solid performance and guarded optimism about future iPhone sales, which may be impacted later this year by issues around the current coronavirus epidemic in China.

News: Magic Leap CEO Teases Secret New AR Virtual Meetings App Called 'C3' Being Used Internally
The past year has revealed a gaping hole of opportunity in the world of business called virtual meetings. Some existing players like Zoom hopped on that opportunity, while others like Skype seemed stuck on the sidelines, and Google Meet just managed to catch up in time to snag some of the shift in remote work.

News: Inside the Future of Smartglasses: Vuzix CEO Paul Travers on What 2021 Holds for AR Wearables
We often discuss the augmented reality efforts coming from the biggest players in Silicon Valley like Google, Facebook, Apple, and others, but one name that keeps coming up when you really begin to dig into the AR space is Vuzix. Since the late '90s, the company has quietly but deliberately worked to build itself into a viable competitor in the enterprise space via its wearable display technology.

News: The 10 Biggest AR Investments of 2020
The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt in practically every business sector. Now, as we look back at the top augmented reality investments of 2020, the AR industry has been no exception.

NR30: Next Reality's 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality for 2020
The year 2020 was a pivotal span of time during which the word "virtual" took on a brand new meaning. Instead of referring to VR or augmented reality, the term was hijacked to describe meeting across long distances through a variety of software tools, most often through video.

News: Magic Leap Looking into Sale of the Company, Report Says
The rumors have been circulating for months, but now there's a source attached to the notion that Magic Leap is looking to sell itself off after a rough couple of years following the launch of its Magic Leap 1 augmented reality device.

News: Apple Recruitment Video Features Augmented Reality Clues at the Center of Call for New Team Members
Whenever a new Apple event invite arrives, the entire tech industry begins tearing the invite's graphics apart in a bid to decipher what the company may be planning on releasing in the coming weeks.

News: This Is Why All Augmented Reality Startups Suck
People fundamentally distrust magicians. And they should. The illusions they proffer are just that, illusions meant to astound rather than tangible interactions and results that have weight and meaning in our real world. Our lizard brains know this, and, no matter what the outstanding feat of "magic" presented, we nevertheless hold fast to our survival-based grip on the truth: we just saw simply "can't be real."

News: Magic Leap Trade Secrets Lawsuit Against China's Nreal on Hold as Mediation Begins & Court Sets Tentative Trial Date
This week, the beginning of an epic legal battle was set to begin between augmented reality players Magic Leap and Nreal, the small China-based startup accused by the former of stealing trade secrets.

Vision Forecast 2020: AR Execs Weigh in on Recent Industry Milestones & What We Can Expect in the Coming Year
The year 2019 was filled with all the normal peaks and valleys of the tech business cycle, but this year was particularly important in a space as relatively young as the augmented reality industry.

Exclusive: Nreal Fires Back at Magic Leap with Motion to Dismiss Trade Secrets Lawsuit
In a stunning end-of-year twist to the Magic Leap versus Nreal legal saga, the China-based startup is now filing a motion against Magic Leap.

News: Magic Leap Pivots to Enterprise, Announces New Business-Focused Services, Slightly Modified Name
As we predicted this time last year, Magic Leap is finally moving from consumer entertainment hype to making a firm commitment to enterprise customers.

News: The 25 Biggest AR Investments in 2019
It's safe to say that we can call the annual ranking of AR investments a holiday tradition at Next Reality.