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.
But there's a catch — the M400 won't ship until September. However, to tide customers over, Vuzix will throw in the M300XL, which normally sells for $999, and ships immediately.
The company notes that the total value of the package is about $2,500, which puts the suggested retail value of the M400 at about $1,500. So, in a way, the early adopter package is like buying the M400 and getting the M300XL for just $200.
"The Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities offers a platform of improved interactivity, power consumption, and thermal efficiency," said Paul Travers, president and CEO of Vuzix, in a statement.
"The Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses includes a larger memory profile, superior voice recognition and noise canceling, an improved touchpad with multi-finger support, built-in GPS, OLED display and much more... The performance improvements also mean that for less processor intensive applications, power consumption is expected to be much less. Qualcomm Technologies has been a great partner for Vuzix and we look forward to expanding our relationship to support the burgeoning AR smart glasses market."
When the M400 does arrive in the hands of customers, it won't be the only smartglasses running the Snapdragon XR1. Earlier this month, Google unveiled its next generation of Glass Enterprise Edition, which also packs the same processor.
But, on hardware specs, the M400 bests Glass in several key categories, including camera sensor (12.8MP vs. 8 MP), memory (6GB vs. 3GB), data storage (64GB vs. 32GB), and battery capacity (94mAh internal battery, 1184 mAh external, and support for third-party battery packs vs. 820 mAh with fast charge support).
Nonetheless, Vuzix still faces stiff competition, as Google offers Android Enterprise Mobile Device Management for ease of IT deployment and greater name recognition. But with the money-making business of augmented reality firmly entrenched in the enterprise arena, there's plenty of business to fight over.
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