The Immersive Wire - 12 May 2021 (News edition)

NEWS DIGEST EDITIONCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday 

// 12 May 2021

Done weights for the first time, and my legs feel as brittle as bread sticks. Pretty sure a child can snap me like a Twix.

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HTC unveiled the

HTC VIVE Pro 2 and HTC VIVE Focus 3.

• The company also unveiled VIVE Business, a suite of tools to help companies of any size incorporate VR into their work. Overall a great array of items for businesses to consider. 

• What's indisputable is VIVE's lead in the enterprise space. Apart from Pico, VRgineers, and Pimax, HTC's hardware and software give it a great edge for businesses who want to explore immersive training or work. 

• "But what about the consumers?" screeched the VR Twitter hivemind - which, mind you, is an incredibly niche group. It looks like HTC is stepping away from producing a consumer offering. And if they do, so what? The company is doing lucrative work in the area, and is consistently innovating. 

• What I do hope for, long-term, is another competitor to Oculus to ensure the market isn't partitioned to one monopolistic company. We all want innovation to keep the industry going forward. 

Sony's next VR headset will have 4K resolution and inside-out tracking,

according to UploadVR. 

• Signs still point to it being wired, which is a shame for anyone who enjoys the free-roaming element of other headsets. But its also a necessity to tap into the power of the PS5. 

• What I am very curious about is the content ecosystem coming into the system; if a lot of content is being made, then it has a chance to draw more people into the successor to the very popular predecessor. 

• Price is the most important factor. The consumer VR market is incredibly price elastic, regardless of specs; so the cheaper the PSVR 2 will be, the more pick-up it will have. 

What do you think about HTC's overall strategy?

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If Oculus is the party-going sibling dancing with friends, the HTC VIVE Pro 2 is the stern one who knows pi to 20 digits. Photo credit: HTC.

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Other stories

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• Active Theory launched immersive events for the WSJ's Future of Everything Festival. 

• Apple invested $45m in Gorilla Glass maker Corning, which might be part of their goal for AR specs. 

• Arcturus Studio announced a new $5m round of seed funding from BITKRAFT Ventures.

• Arthur announced major product updates for their platform, including photorealistic avatars with lip-syncing, audio zones for private conversations in subgroups of people, and speech-to-text capabilities.

• Melbourne Water won an award for their Confined Space Entry Simulator, which uses VR to simulate walking in a sewer.

• Niantic's Real World Platform is getting a new name — Niantic Lightship — and offering broader access to the new Niantic Lightship Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK).

• Poplar Studio has partnered with Raydiant to offer plug-and-play digital signage solutions for in-store experiences.

• Resolution Games released Demeo, a tabletop RPG experience that is doing very well. 

• Studica Solution, Electric Monkeys, and Perp Games announced that Gravitational is coming to PlayStation VR on 13 July 2021.

• Talespin announced the debut of its CoPilot Designer, a no-code authoring tool that enables the user to create their own immersive learning content. 

• XR Health Alliance is launching the The Growing Value of XR in Healthcare in the UK Report, which explores VR/AR in the UK’s healthcare sector.

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That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) virtualperceptions (dot) com. Have an excellent day!