Apple Acquires Virtual Reality Company NextVR

[MacRumors]

Apple has acquired California-based virtual reality company NextVR, Apple confirmed to Bloomberg today.

New's of Apple's planned NEXTVR acquisition first surfaced in April, but it appears the purchase wasn't completed until recently. Apple reportedly spent around $100 million to purchase the company.

The NextVR website has disappeared, and there is a message that says the company is "heading in a new direction." Apple gave Bloomberg its standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

NextVR melds virtual reality with sports, music, and entertainment, providing VR experiences for watching live events on VR headsets from PlayStation, HTC, Oculus, Google, Microsoft, and other manufacturers.

Prior to its acquisition by Apple, NextVR had established partnerships with the NBA, Wimbledon, Fox Sports, the WWE and more, plus it holds more than 40 patents that could be of interest to Apple.

Apple has been working on multiple augmented, virtual, and mixed reality headsets over the course of the last several years. Just today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple's augmented reality Smart Glasses that are in the works could launch in 2022.

Along with the smart glasses, there have also been rumors indicating Apple is working on some kind of virtual reality headset that would feature an 8K display for each eye and that would be untethered from a smartphone or computer.

Article Link: Apple Acquires Virtual Reality Company NextVR

 

[Secondempire]

Well this was a logical next step for Apple

 

[AustinIllini]

That's going to turn into VR OS X

 

[Attirex]

IBF comments about how bc of pandemic, cancelling of large entertainment events (maybe forever?j), and stay-at-home orders, this is a "smart buy."

 

[gamesandtheory]

The next major leap forward in consumer VR has got to be a headset that isn’t a heavy object pressing firmly against your face. Hoping a lightweight “smart glasses” form factor can deliver immersive VR in addition to AR, with minimal skin contact.

 

[Cosmosent]

Apple reportedly spent around $100 million to purchase the company.

​

Prior to its acquisition by Apple, NextVR had established partnerships with the NBA, Wimbledon, Fox Sports, the WWE and more, plus it holds more than 40 patents that could be of interest to Apple.

There is a HUGE Disconnect here !

Either they have something, & thus would have a value far north of $1B USD, OR they don't have much, & that's where the $100M USD comes in !

Another possibility, a VC fire sale !

 

[MacsRgr8]

That's cool.
I had the impression AR had the focus, not so much VR.

 

[red41]

I'm surprised Apple bought them before Facebook.

 

[DevNull0]

This is the first Apple acquisition in many years that's really interesting to me.

I've always liked the promise of NextVR, but the implementation and service were so badly done. I've been looking into it every 6 months or so hoping they'd get their act together. This is something Apple really can turn into an amazing product if they do it right. I just hope they have a lot of non-sports content and don't lock it in to crippled hardware. I've got a Rift on a windows machine with a pretty good graphics card. I don't want to use a glorified google cardboard to access the content.

 

[oilers780]

Good acquisition. I remember watching March Madness in Next VR in a Samsung Gear VR. It was a cool experience. The tech could use some refinement, but I am intrigued about the future of sporting events with stronger VR capabilities.

Though we haven't seen much about a standalone Apple VR experience just yet.

 

[The Barron]

The next major leap forward in consumer VR has got to be a headset that isn’t a heavy object pressing firmly against your face. Hoping a lightweight “smart glasses” form factor can deliver immersive VR in addition to AR, with minimal skin contact.

I agree and Apple is ON IT, you can guarantee that!
[automerge]1589487980[/automerge]

I'm surprised Apple bought them before Facebook.

Very good move on Apple's part. Too bad FB 🤣

 

[DevNull0]

There is a HUGE Disconnect here !

Either they have something, & thus would have a value far north of $1B USD, OR they don't have much, & that's where the $100M USD comes in !

I've been following NextVR for a while. The promise sounds fantastic, but the implementation has been horrible. They don't explain what their service is, and they don't tell you what their content is or how you can access it. You could download a mostly-broken app and have a frustrating experience that leaves you still not knowing what they're trying to offer.

Basically it was a great idea run by people with no idea what they were doing and no understanding of technology, and because of that no customers and revenue, so all they had was a massive burn rate.

That's why it sounds like a $Billion idea and the price is so slow. It could easily be a multi-billion dollar product for Apple if they take it and do anything decent with the tech.

 

[tyranne201]

Apple needs computers with better graphics, otherwise it won't be worth it. It is weird that on the smartphone/tablet side they are ahead in graphics.

 

[CordovaLark]

So has Apple made assurances of people buying said future headset that the logoff/sign out button will not disappear when they login? Effectively trapping them in some unknown madman's world.

 

[newyorksole]

We could see their glasses/headset as early as WWDC 2021 with a release in Spring 2022.

Definitely a good acquisition.

 

[UltimaKilo]

The next major leap forward in consumer VR has got to be a headset that isn’t a heavy object pressing firmly against your face. Hoping a lightweight “smart glasses” form factor can deliver immersive VR in addition to AR, with minimal skin contact.

That reality is far, far away. Not only is the tech 10+ years away for 8K per eye, 240hz, 200+ degree FOV, it’s likely more than 20 years away before you can get that in a small form factor, and probably longer using a dedicated onboard processor.

Now 4K per eye, ~140 FOV, 120hz in a small form factor? Might be able to hit that in the next 5-6 years.

This was, however, an excellent move by Apple.

 

[stevemiller]

I work at a vr focused studio. They’ve done a terrible job of supporting Mac creatives who want to work in vr. I’m pretty much the lone person bothering to use a Mac for production.

So they’ll have some consumer focused gadget in 2 years. I’m not sure I’ll even still be an Apple user by then given how unpleasant the Mac has become for actually getting work done in 3D/games production.

 

[iPadCary]

If Apple makes an 8K AIO VR headset, it will be the single greatest moment of my Life.

 

[wigby]

Apple needs computers with better graphics, otherwise it won't be worth it. It is weird that on the smartphone/tablet side they are ahead in graphics.

Mobile is where the money is and really where the customers are too. That’s why Apple reluctantly updates pro desktop products but aggressively updates mobile devices.

 

[Starfia]

Interesting "new's."

 

[BulkSlash]

They bought it because it has NeXT in the name!

 

[deconstruct60]

That's cool.
I had the impression AR had the focus, not so much VR.

If you are primarily wrapping graphics effects over a video feed of an event that happens in reality then it is AR (augmented reality); not virtual reality.

The sales pitch at the NBA website is "Site courtside in VR".
https://www.nba.com/xr


demo 1 :

demo 2 :

Technically sitting courtside at a rea (literally based in reality) l game isn't VR. It is real people playing a real game. This is closer to 3D TV that you wear ( instead of trying to approximate 3D TV with a flat screen and 3d 'glasses' pairing. ).


Virtual reality is where looking at something that is primarily , almost exclusively, artificially constructed. That is where the 'virtual' comes from.

 

[iPadCary]

Patent grab, plain & simple.
Apple's gonna make big moves in virtual reality.
This aquisition is just to cover the
Coronavirus-inspired "Virtual Performance" angle.
Just you wait and see ....
🙂👍🏻

 

[iPadCary]

Very good move on Apple's part. Too bad FB 🤣

Facebook Reality Labs has "Venues" ....