January was another challenging month for extended reality (XR) vendors and solution providers. While events like CES 2023 highlighted some of the best immersive innovations, caution looms across the industry after the challenging holiday period of 2022.
Despite the difficult period, the industry may be facing a rebound after the recent public success of the most influential players in the industry.
Large companies successfully stand back up. For example, Snap is seeing a resurgence in success after hardware blunders, and Google is running strong despite major layoffs.
Furthermore, audience interest from enterprise end users and consumers is strong, with rumors of new hardware from Microsoft, Apple, and Meta circulating.
Meanwhile, XR hardware vendors such as HTC VIVE, XYZ Reality, VITURE, and AjnaLens are working hard to debut new hardware solutions for 2023.
With February entering its first weekend, this past week reflects both the hurdles the industry has been facing lately and the answers to those challenges.
Fourth Quarter Tariff Earnings Report, good for business, bad for XR
This Tuesday, Meta Platforms released a Fourth quarter earnings reportwhich showed an optimistic outlook after the various controversies of Facebook’s parent company and its famous leader Mark Zuckerberg CEO, Founder.
The Meta report showed how the company is facing 2.96 monthly active users, a 23 percent increase in ad impressions, and $32.17 billion in revenue. Moreover, the report highlighted Meta’s total 2022 earnings of $116.61 billion.
On the XR side, the Meta Reality Labs division lost an additional $4.28 billion in the fourth quarter, bringing its total loss to $13.72 billion.
The hit marks another weak financial statement for Meta’s immersive technology research and development arm. Last year, Reality Labs underwent a major restructuring after a bad financial report.
After a 26 percent/$10 billion profit loss across its XR R&D subsidiary, Meta has cut XR workers by about 30 percent. Moreover, the Menlo Park-based company has canceled several immersive device projects such as Project Nazare, Orion smartglasses, and XR smartwatch.
Although the fourth quarter report was generally successful, Meta may be able to shore up the struggling XR division.
Meta object FTC command
This Tuesday, Meta made headlines again. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed injunction against Meta after its continued purchase of the immersive fitness app Within.
According to the injunction, the FTC prohibits Meta from purchasing within Unlimited until 23:59 Pacific Time on the first business day following the ruling.
It also adds that judges may extend restraining orders that expire on Tuesday at 23:59 PST for up to seven days.
Meta first attempted to buy Inside back in 2021 for $440 million.
The FTC argued in the US District Court for the Northern District of California that Meta’s acquisition of Inside violated anticompetitive behaviour.
Microsoft Continue Hololens 2, MRTK, Industrial Metaverse Investment
this thursday, Robin Seiler, Corporate Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Windows + Devices OrganizationAnd Dispel the rumors Microsoft is dropping support for Hololens and the MRTK.
Seiler explained that Microsoft will continue to support Hololens 2 users. Microsoft will continue to provide updates for the Hololens 2 device to assist business customers in sectors such as field service, factory operations, and the healthcare crane XR.
In addition, the company is increasing its support for its comprehensive, open-source, cross-platform content development service, MRTK.
Microsoft will continue to support the distribution of MRTK-based open source Hololens solutions. Continuous support allows MRTK developers to build efficiently, thanks to constant device updates.
Microsoft can also help developers distribute metaverse industrial interoperable solutions on Hololens through continued MRTK support.
Caregility Debtus XR Solution at the Arab Health 2023 Conference in Dubai
Finally, at Arab Health 2023, the provider of immersive healthcare solutions Caregility for the first time Their virtual care solutions that enhance patient response times and outcomes.
Caregility has an XR telehealth intensive care unit that provides patient support through immersive remote sessions.
XR Healthcare has successfully deployed its services with nearly 5,000 remote sessions in 17 hospitals in the Kingdom.
By partnering with regional healthcare companies, Caregility is now distributing its comprehensive cloud-based solution in virtual health hospitals, covering 30 clinical services in 130 hospitals nationwide.