On Thursday, September 9th, Facebook announced the launch of Ray-Ban Stories: stylish smart glasses that give users a new way to capture and share photos and video, listen to music, and take phone calls. The smart glasses are the result of a years-long collaboration with Ray-Ban and Luxottica and are primarily designed so wearers can stay present with friends, family … Read More
ByteDance Acquires Pico Headset Maker To Enter Virtual Reality Market
On the heels of its $4 billion acquisition of a major mobile gaming studio, ByteDance acquired Pico Interactive (“Pico”), makers of the Pico headset lineup, to enter the virtual reality market. Pico was the third-largest virtual reality headset maker globally.
Why Facebook Is Staking Its Claim on VR Advertising
Oculus leadership announced June 16th it is testing a system for embedding advertisements directly into VR experiences on the Quest platform. The ads will run on 3 currently released titles including Resolution Games’ Blaston, and use personalized data from users’ corresponding Facebook marketing profile and general intent metrics such as previous purchases and wish lists from the Oculus store. This … Read More
How Can Facebook Bring Fortnite Into Virtual Reality?
On June 11th Oculus and Facebook announced their latest studio acquisition; BigboxVR. Excitement around the acquisition centers mostly around Bigbox’s flagship title; Population: ONE, which is a massively multiplayer battle royale shooter for VR. Specifically, media outlets have drawn comparisons between Pop: ONE and runaway hit Fortnite, which has dominated both the gaming market and conversations around the future of … Read More
Snap Partner Summit 2021 Recap: Augmented Reality Takes A Big Leap Forward for Social Commerce Brands
Snap Partner Summit 2021 is an annual event held by Snap, Inc., the company behind Snapchat and Spectacles smart glasses for its developers, creators, advertisers, and other business partners. This year’s Snap Partner Summit was streamed live on June 11th. It’s the 3rd Snap Partner Summit, and it was a very important event as Snap delivered its short term and … Read More
Snap and WaveOptics Enter The Shrinking AR Smartglasses Race
Following the announcement of its new Spectacles AR development kit, Snap Inc. has announced its deal to acquire waveguide supplier WaveOptics. The deal is worth over $500 million, at least half of which is to be paid in stock. The partnership between the two companies signals a recommitment from Snap to develop and produce true AR smartglasses within the next … Read More