Apple has always been at the forefront for all kinds of augmented reality innovations and has always had ambitious plans for the future of AR and VR. As a part of its next promising venture, Apple is in the process of acquiring NextVR; a California based VR company.
NextVR is a popular VR company in Orange County, California that has entertained users for a decade with its entertaining VR experiences using headsets from HTC, PlayStation, Microsoft, Lenovo, and Oculus. In fact, the company also holds the patented technology behind the upscaling of video streams. This technology is responsible for supporting high-quality video streaming of sports and music events to VR headsets. Besides this, NextVR holds a whopping 39 other technology patents.
Apple is expected to acquire NextVR for around $100 million. It is believed that Apple has a shell company that is currently hiring engineers from the company who are responsible for product development. Although the acquisition hasn’t happened yet, Apple and NextVR have already started informing their employees about the possible relocation on the horizon.
NextVR failed to get funding for the Series C round early last year. This led to a reduction in its staff of about 40%. Moreover, the focus of the company on virtual reality was viewed as a risk due to the ever-rising popularity of the AR technology. The company is currently partnered with popular names such as Fox Sports, NBA, Wimbledon as well as a number of sporting and live music partners.
It cannot be disputed that this acquisition will be a major leap forward for Apple when it comes to its growth. With this acquisition, the company will go one step further to embracing the world of augmented reality and virtual reality. This multi-million-dollar acquisition is super promising as it is expected to help Apple ramp up its VR game significantly.
Back in 2017, the company also acquired Vrvana, a VR headset company, for about $30 million. However, never before has Apple beefed up its VR portfolio as it has with AR. More details will follow once the acquisition is closed.