The XR technology industry is moving forward sharply as Apple is prepped to debut its landmark device, following CES 2024 last week. This year’s event featured innovative products for consumers and enterprises in the XR space. Firms like Sony, NVIDIA, XREAL, Qualcomm, PIXO VR, and Dimension X showcased the latest in spatial computing innovation, which may alter the future of work and life.
In 2024, major computing firms, including Apple, are expected to enter the XR market, potentially spurring another wave of AR/VR/MR investment and adoption.
Significant firms are redefining approaches to enterprise-grade XR scaling as the productivity XR wheel spins. Learn today how major industry players are working to get an XR device in the office.
Magic Leap Enters “Chapter 3” of Enterprise XR Adoption Roadmap
Ross Rosenberg, the CEO of Magic Leap, and Daniel Diez, the firm’s CTO, recently discussed the company’s roadmap with VentureBeat. After undergoing a significant leadership shake-up in 2023, the company is now focusing on commercial adoption of its XR technology for industry clients and establishing customer use cases, which Rosenberg referred to as the “chapter three” stage of Magic Leap.
Magic Leap is currently working with major enterprise end-users such as Siemens to leverage its highly competitive XR display. Rosenberg expressed confidence in the company’s ability to better display spatial information for industrial clients than its competitors. “When you have the desire to not just display information, but to interact with that information at that level of precision, there’s no one else that can do what we do,” he said.
Rosenberg also identified healthcare, military training, and offices as sectors that could benefit from XR technology. According to Rosenberg, these areas represent “very high-value use cases,” the company is gaining traction in these markets.
Moreover, Diez explained that Magic Leap is also “looking at industrial settings,” he added:
You throw around terms like “industrial metaverse,” talking about digital twins of factory floors or specific equipment, those aspects of the metaverse are what customers are most interested in right now. That’s where the value is derived.
LG CEO Hints at XR Device in 2025
This week, there have been rumours about LG, a multinational hardware provider, entering the XR device marketplace. The company has been developing components for giants in the immersive industry, such as Meta and Apple.
According to LG CEO Cho Joo-wan, the company’s television division is currently working on an unnamed product to ensure a fast-paced development process. Joo-wan remarked that LG plans to launch an XR device as early as next year.
Although LG’s developments in the XR device marketplace are still in the early stages, the company has been interested in this area since 2022. During a quarterly earnings conference call, an LG representative explained that they are closely monitoring the XR market and are preparing to enter it quickly if profitability and market size meet their standards. They have been working on XR products in advance to prepare for this.
This news comes after LG had a busy 2022/23 creating XR components for AR/VR/MR headsets, working with some of the field’s leading companies.
Quest 3 MR Features Leak Amidst Biometric Data Misuse Allegations
Meta has been in the news this week due to an unexpected leak that revealed some of the upcoming mixed reality features for the Quest 3. At the same time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is required to appear before a Texas court as part of an ongoing case related to the company’s misuse of users’ biometric data.
The leak was posted by a technical filmmaker who shared two videos showcasing marketing material for the upcoming Quest 3 MR features, which are expected to be released soon after the Vision Pro debut. The leak revealed a new “Augment” feature first introduced at Connect 2023.
There is no official release date yet, but the feature could be released alongside Apple’s XR product to showcase Meta’s MR vision compared to Apple’s spatial computing future.
In other news, Mark Zuckerberg faces a court case regarding the company’s misuse of users’ biometric data. The Texan Sixth Court of Appeals has required Zuckerberg to participate in a deposition case following Judge Jeff Rambin’s rejection of the CEO’s attempt to avoid being deposed.
The case started in February 2022, alleging that Meta illegally gathered and misused user biometric data. The case doesn’t refer to Meta’s XR product lineup, but it could impact how the company approaches its biometric data use for its AR and MR devices.
Moreover, with the Quest Pro being designed for work environments, the company already appears to have heightened considerations for sensitive enterprise working environments via its Quest for Business bundle.
It’s worth noting that Meta’s Quest Pro MR headset can track a user’s facial movements to create realistic avatars. For its AR smart glasses, the Ray-Ban product tracks data surrounding a user, such as brands and signs, to enable virtual assistance services.
ENGAGE XR and Lenovo Redefine Interactive Learning
This week, XR Today reported on how Engage, one of the key ISVs working with Lenovo ThinkReality, is democratizing XR development, making it accessible to anyone with a vision extending beyond traditional 2D interfaces.
Engage CEO David Whelan explained, “Engage is an enterprise education-focused platform, and we see ourselves as the WordPress of spatial computing, where we have dozens of clients in many different sectors creating content using our unique tools for their use cases.”
Moreover, to assist customers from diverse sectors like finance, training, and manufacturing, Engage has introduced a unique conversational AI. At CES 2024, attendees interacted with Athena, a virtual entity named after the goddess of wisdom, providing delegates with direct insight into the latest metaverse developments – “you can ask her questions and tell her what you want to do. Then she builds the scenario you’re describing – there’s no need to write a single piece of code,” Whelan remarked.
Whelan also added:
It really cuts down the time and cost of creating digital assets, 3d models and training environments, like powerful immersive training scenarios. And our partnership with Lenovo means they’re being created on the ThinkReality VRX, by a world-leading hardware manufacturer.
Check out the full article to learn more about how Lenovo and Engage are redefining interactive learning.
