Market Reality: Meta Company & Leap Motion Find New Owners as AWE 2019 Wraps Up

The annual Augmented World Expo (AWE) typically packs the front page of Next Reality with new products and services from companies in the augmented reality industry.

However, this year, some of the biggest business news came from outside the conference, as ownership of two of the more prominent names in the industry, Meta Company and Leap Motion, changed hands.

At the conference itself, Nreal and Vuzix, after revealing their respective smartglasses, Light and M400, earlier this year, took the opportunity to unveil pricing and shipping timelines for their products.

Meta Assets Reorganized Under New Company Meta View

Almost half a year after we broke the story about the demise of Meta Company, there's good news for fans of the augmented reality startup — a rebirth is at hand.

As we reported months ago, a new owner, called Meta View, is in control of Meta's assets, but now the new group is making it official.

Read further for more on the resurrection of Meta's technology and the familiar name that will be in charge of the new company.

REALITY BITES: Former Magic Leap director of product design Josh Anon reflects on Magic Leap One and puts together his wishlist of what he'd like to see in the sequel.

Leap Motion Acquired by Ultrahaptics

The long and somewhat tumultuous journey of Leap Motion has come to an end, thanks to another startup.

While most of the augmented reality industry was knee-deep in technical discussions about the future AR and new product reveals, Ultrahaptics quietly acquired Leap Motion on Wednesday.

Continue reading to find out how much Ultrahaptics paid for Leap Motion and what the combination of the two technologies means for the AR industry.

REALITY BITES: Medivis has already caught our attention for its impressive AR surgery platform SurgicalAR, which runs on HoloLens and Magic Leap One. Now, the company has taken a big step in getting its technology into surgical suites by achieving FDA approval for its platform.

Nreal Unveils Price & Availability for Consumer Edition of Light Smartglasses

Having already solved for functionality and form factor, Nreal appears poised to pull ahead of its consumer smartglasses competition as the third piece of the puzzle now falls into place.

On Thursday, at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2019, the smartglasses maker revealed that it will make the Nreal Light Consumer Kit, which includes the 1080p, 52-degree field of view smartglasses and a 3DoF controller, available for $499 later this year.

Read further for more details on the consumer version of Light and how Nreal plans to get the smartglasses in the hands of developers ahead of the consumer launch.

REALITY BITES: Per tradition AWE has honored the top AR and VR companies and their products with the Auggie Awards. Among the winners were Magic Leap, Snapchat,8th Wall, the NY Times app, Atheer Air, Looking Glass Factory, Zappar, Real Wear, and Neurable.

Vuzix Opens Pre-Orders for M400 with Early Adopter Bundle

Smartglasses maker Vuzix rushed out of the gate to be the first company to announce hardware powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 for augmented reality wearables, but now the company is buying time until the product is ready to ship.

On Thursday, at the Augmented World Expo (AWE), the company revealed that the M400 smartglasses are now available for purchase for $1,799 as part of an early adopters program.

Continue reading to find out what enterprise customers will get as part of the package, when the next generation smartglasses will arrive on their doorsteps, and how the smartglasses compare to the other big name wearable running on the XR1 platform.

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. Check out previous editions of Market Reality for more news you may have missed.